Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan expressed regret on Saturday for not receiving any invitation from the state government led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the inauguration of the 125-ft statue of Dr B R Ambedkar, the father of the Indian Constitution, on Friday.
She said there was neither a call nor a letter from the state government inviting her to attend the Ambedkar statue inauguration on the banks of Hussainsagar lake.
"Had I received the invitation, I would have definitely attended the event," she said.
Stating that Ambedkar had given a lot of importance to women's rights, Tamilisai said it was surprising that the state government had chosen to ignore a woman Governor for such a prestigious program. Even as per protocol, the Governor should have been invited for such a program, she said.
"After waiting for the invitation until the last moment, I had to pay floral tributes to the portrait of Dr Ambedkar within the Raj Bhavan premises," Tamilisai said.
In fact, the Telangana government has not extended invitations to any of the opposition parties, including the Congress and the BJP. While all BRS leaders, right from cabinet ministers to district-level workers, could get access to the invitation, not a single Dalit leader from the opposition parties was called for the event.
"It was like a private event of the BRS, rather than a government program. KCR lacks the basic courtesy to invite the opposition," a Congress leader criticized.