New Delhi/Hyderabad, Jul 21 (IANS): A day after a man committed suicide in New Delhi in support of a separate Telangana, a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader Thursday slapped and abused an official in Andhra Pradesh Bhavan for refusing to allow the body inside the state-run guest house.
Accusing the government of showing insult to a martyr, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the movement for a separate state, has called for a shutdown in the region Friday.
TRS party chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao's nephew Harish Rao and other TRS leaders attacked AP Bhavan after learning that the state's resident commissioner reportedly asked Delhi Police not to allow the body of M. Yadi Reddy to be brought there.
Frustrated over the delay in formation of separate Telangana state, the 28-year-old man from Telangana had committed suicide by hanging from a tree at India Gate.
Harish Rao, who is also legislator, kicked the door, smashed the panes and barged into the resident commissioner's office. In full glare of media, he thrashed Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Ramchandra Rao, who said he had acted only as per the direction of the resident commissioner.
Harish Rao, who was accompanied by Chandrasekhara Rao's son K.T. Rama Rao, Etela Rajender and former MP B. Vinod Kumar, had a heated argument with Bhavan officials for reportedly writing to Delhi Police to take the body from the hospital straight to the crematorium.
K. T. Rama Rao however later blamed the whole episode on the Andhra Pradesh government stating that the resident commissioner denied entry to them at the its behest.
"It is not the AP resident commissioner who is responsible for it, but the Andhra Pradesh government that is responsible for this," Rao told NDTV.
"That is the reason why we have been asking the UPA government to take cognizance of the fact that there is no government in Andhra Pradesh today, the government that exists in Andhra Pradesh today exists only as the people's representatives from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema and there are no Telangana peoples representatives in the government today," Rao said.
"Let the UPA government understand that their insensitivity is costing the life of people of Telangana," he said.
The TRS leaders, who had rushed to Delhi in the morning, alleged that a martyr was treated in an inhuman manner at the instance of state Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Harish Rao said they were waiting since morning at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where the autopsy was done and wanted the body to be brought to AP Bhavan to enable all Telangana leaders of various parties pay their tributes.
"But they shifted the body from the rear gate of the hospital to the airport," said the TRS leader.
Leaders of Congress and Communist Party of India (CPI) present in the capital also rushed to AP Bhavan to lodge their protest for not keeping the body at the state-run guest house.
The employees of AP Bhavan later staged a sit-in protesting the attack on their colleague and demanded an apology from Harish Rao.
The TRS legislator later expressed his regret over the incident but refused to tender an apology.
Meanwhile, in Hyderabad the JAC has called for Telangana shutdown Friday.
JAC convenor M. Kodandaram said the shutdown has been called to protest the insult shown to a Telangana "martyr" in Delhi and the government's attempt to suppress the right of employees to go on strike.
The day-long shutdown is likely to affect normal life in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region.
The two-day shutdown July 5-6 in support of the demand for a separate state had crippled normal life.