Feet Washing Ritual Kicks Off Storm, BJP, BRS Condemn Telangana Government
Miss World pageant contestants during their heritage tour at Ramappa Temple in Mulugu district — the event has sparked political outrage after reports of local women washing their feet emerged.
Hyderabad: The BJP and the BRS criticised ing the state government for making local women wash the feet of Miss World pageant contestants during their visit to the Ramappa Temple in Mulugu district, on Wednesday. The Opposition said the washing of the feet by local women had had hurt the self-esteem of the Telangana women.
Union coal and mines minister G. Kishan Reddy called it a humiliating act and said that it reeked of the colonial-era mindset of the Congress government. “The Congress government should be ashamed that in a land where the valour of Rani Rudramma Devi is passed on from one generation to another, they have reduced the role of Telangana women to that of washing the feet of foreigners,” Kishan Reddy said.
“For millennia, our civilisational ethos has anchored our interaction with guests around the idea of ‘ Atithi Devo Bhava' ,that is, to treat the guest as divine. However, in the process of respecting the guest, it is unacceptable to lower the self-respect of our own women,” he argued.
The minister also called upon the Congress national leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to tender an unconditional apology to Telangana women.
BJP vice-president and Mahbubnagar MP D.K. Aruna said the state government failed to distinguish between the tradition and practice of respecting the guests — `Athithi Devo Bhava’ — and maintaining self respect. BJP SC Morcha secretary S. Kumar and Mahila Morcha state president Shilpa Reddy sought an apology from the state government and stringent action against the organizers and the officials for insulting the state women.
The BRS also criticised the state government for the “humiliating” incident in which “local Dalit, tribal, and economically disadvantaged women were forced to wash and wipe the feet of foreign beauty pageant participants.”
In a letter to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, several BRS women leaders, including former ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy, Satyavati Rathod, Sunita Laxma Reddy, and MLA Kova Laxmi, demanded an apology from Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for “disgraceful and humiliating act”.
Reacting to charges levelled by the opposition leaders, minister Danasari Anasuya Seethakka said the BRS leaders were annoyed over the success of heritage walk carried out by the contestants and were making hue and cry over “a small incident.” It is a practice in tribal tradition to wash the feet before entering into a temple.
A girl from an event management company had poured water over the feet of a pageant contestant and the Opposition was trying to connect the same to the state government, she said.
People are aware how a BRS leader had “roamed around” US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump when she visited the state for the Global Entrepreneur Summit in 2017, she said. “Why did BRS leaders not feel ashamed when a district collector sat at the feet of K. Kavitha and a number of collectors bowed at the feet of K. Chandrashekar Rao when the BRS was in power,” Seethakka said.