Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have escalated their verbal sparring after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao skipped Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ceremony to inaugurate the Statue of Equality in Hyderabad.

On February 5, the Prime Minister unveiled the 216-foot-tall 'Statue of Equality,' which honours Bhakti Saint Sri Ramanujacharya, who lived in the 11th century.

KCR was unable to meet PM Modi at the Hyderabad airport and instead chose to send Minister of Fisheries Talasani Srinivas Yadav as the Minister-in-Waiting to do so. The absence of the Chief Minister and his son from the inauguration ceremony was notable.

"The Icon of Partiality unveiled Statue of Equality and irony just died a billion deaths!!" tweeted K Taraka Rama Rao, the son of Telangana Chief Minister K Taraka Rama Rao, a day after the event.

G Kishan Reddy, the Union Minister for Culture, Tourism, and Development of the North Eastern Region, responded angrily, saying that KCR and KTR glorify Nizam, whose Razakar army killed Hindus at will, and criticise PM, whose only dharma is 'Sab ka Saath sab ka vikas.'

"We Muslims will slaughter 100 crore Hindus in 15 minutes if the police are eliminated. By associating with Owaisi and MIM, CM KCR and KTR support such comments. They exalt Nizam, whose Razakar army indiscriminately killed Hindus. He then insults the Prime Minister, whose sole dharma is 'Sab ka Saath sab ka vikas,' "Reddy expressed his thoughts.

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