AMARAVATI: By all accounts, the Krishna Pushkaralu have turned into campaign vehicles for the ruling Telugu Desam. Everywhere one looks, yellow, the Telugu Desam party colour, is the predominant hue. In fact, the sea of yellow is such that YSR Congress MLA P. Ramakrishna Reddy has declared that he would not be taking a holy dip in the ‘TD-coloured’ Pushkar ghats.
Yellow has been increasingly visible over the last two years, but at the Pushkar ghats, it is everywhere. Yellow clothes, yellow paint, yellow bulbs to illuminate the dais during the government programmes etc. The trend was first visible during the TD government’s New Year programme at Tullur in January 2015 and it is catching on.
Now the ghats on the banks of the Krishna are yellow too. This ‘overkill’ is giving the Opposition a perfect tool to attack the ruling party with. “The TD is turning the occasion of the sacred Krishna Pushkaralu into a party campaign, that too with public money,” is the catchphrase these days. A majority of the 72 Pushkar ghats in Guntur district are overwhelmingly yellow, leaving people to say that it is the first time they are witnessing a politically-motivated Krishna Pushkaralu.
The ghat at Harischandrapuram village on the banks of Krishna river has turned into yellow basement. Locals R. Rajeswara Rao and others said Krishna Pushkaralu is a sacred event in which people take dips in the river to cleanse their sins and pray for peace. They said that white is the colour for such sacred events, but now politics have relegated sanctity to the background.
They opined that TD government was trying to gain mileage from the Krishna Pushkaralu by giving it a yellow colour. YSRC MLA P. Ramakrishna Reddy alleged that TD has no morals so it turned the religious fete into political event. He alleged that all Pushkar ghats were turned into yellow ghats, indicating that the party is sponsoring the Pushkaralu. Mr Ramakrishna Reddy said that the state government was spending public money for Krishna Pushkaralu arrangements and hence cannot use the TD’s party colour. He said that white has been used at the ghats since ages since it denoted peace and sanctity. The MLA announced that he will not take a holy dip in the yellow ghats if the government did not change the colour.
