Rallies, road blockades & black balloons: Modi’s presence met with protests in Hyd

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Hyderabad for two days as part of the BJP’s national executive meeting, where several crucial resolutions have been taken by the party.
MRPS activists stage a protest at Hitex
MRPS activists stage a protest at Hitex
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Demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi keep the promise he made during the 2014 elections to initiate steps for classification of Scheduled Castes (SC) in the state, the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) took out a rally at Indira Park in Hyderabad on Sunday, July 3. The protesters also attempted to stage a sadak bandh (road blockade) protest at Hitex, where the BJP’s national executive meeting was underway in the presence of Modi and other national-level party leaders. Several MRPS activists were detained in the wake of the protest. MRPS founder president Manda Krishna Madiga had said on Friday that such a protest would be staged, if the Union government failed to initiate steps for classification of SCs in the state before the BJP’s mega meet.
 

MRPS activists get detained amid protests in Hyderabad
 
Modi has arrived in Telangana for two days as part of the BJP’s national executive meeting, where several crucial resolutions have been taken by the party. While the presence of Modi and other top leaders has boosted the political morale of BJP’s state leadership and cadre, it has been met with taunts and criticism from Opposition parties including the TRS and Congress. 
 
Workers of the Congress party also held a march from Gandhi Bhavan to the BJP office on Sunday, releasing black balloons into the air and raising slogans against the PM. In the afternoon, hours ahead of Modi's scheduled address at the Parade Ground of Secunderabad amid tight security, Congress workers tried to stage a protest march to the Telangana BJP office over Modi's alleged anti-Telangana remarks. The protesters, however, were stopped on their way. Amid police resistance, the party leaders, led by Chairman of Fishermen Congress of Telangana Mettu Sai Kumar, released black balloons into the air. Videos of the protest showed Congressmen shouting ‘Modi Down Down’ and ‘Modi Go Back’ among other slogans while releasing the balloons.
 
Alleging that the PM has mocked the formation of Telangana state on the floor of Parliament, Sai Kumar demanded that Modi should seek apology from the four crore people in Telangana. “The shameless BJP leaders in Telangana are praising him now. But when Telangana was fighting to receive the status of a separate state under the Constitution, BJP had not even played a minor role in that struggle,” he said. Earlier, Modi had reportedly said that the Telangana state was created without holding any discussion, at a time when the Parliament doors were closed.
 
For a while now, the TRS and the BJP have been engaging in turf wars to occupy public spaces to showcase their strength in the form of advertisements hoardings, with the latter alleging that TRS has occupied all metro and public spaces in a bid to invisibilise their event. Several posters and flex boards parodying Money Heist, a popular Netflix series, to mock Modi had mushroomed in public places. The boards were purportedly installed by the TRS cadre.
The “bizarre” flexes drew ire from BJP functionaries, who slammed the TRS for hitting a low. However, the TRS has justified its actions with the claim that it was running a mass rally in support of presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha. It also alleged that the meme and poster wars were first started by the BJP.
 
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