An activist from Telangana's Armoor town staged a unique protest against local MLA Jeevan Reddy, who was recently caught on camera bragging about his new luxury car worth Rs 3 crore. To raise a key civic issue, Mailaram Balu, an activist in Telangana, on Friday, erected a flex board that read, "We congratulate our MLA Ashannagari Jeevan Reddy who recently bought a car worth Rs 3 crores”.
The board had the photos of his car as well as the poor condition of a road near the railway gate in the MLA’s own constituency of Armoor. Taking a dig at Jeevan Reddy, the board further read, "Construct the road for at least the sake of your costly car, if not for the people of Armoor."
In the video, which surfaced a week ago, ruling TRS party MLA Jeevan Reddy was seen boasting about his luxury car during a conversation with Congress MLA Jagga Reddy. The incident is said to have taken place after an official meet.
Armoor MLA Jeevan Reddy showed off his car to Jagga Reddy and even quoted a popular dialogue from Mahesh Babu's Pokiri — "It's not important when I came, what's important is, did the bullet enter or not" — apparently boasting about how costly his car is. "Look at your car, and look at mine," said Jeevan Reddy as he drives away his car after refusing to see the Congress MLA's old car.
This video, which soon went viral, seemingly irked the local activist, who then decided to put up the poster to bring the pathetic condition of roads to the TRS MLA's constituency attention. The poster, too, went viral on social media.
Speaking about his motive behind putting up the flex, Balu said that he wanted to remind the MLA of pathetic roads that make it difficult to even walk on it.
"We congratulate the MLA for the new car on behalf of all the people who are affected due to the bad roads. He has not laid the roads in the last six years for the people of his own constituency. As the roads are filled with potholes, it will be a tough drive for his luxury car. So I demand that he at least repair the road for the sake of his costly car, if not for the people," he said.
Balu even went on to compare the MLA with Rome's emperor Nero, pointing to the popular expression that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
Earlier, this month another Telangana activist Musham Srinivas sent a couple of face masks, hand sanitiser and a bunch of paracetamol tablets to state Minister Talasani Srinivas in an apparent bid to highlight the Minister’s alleged “flouting” of COVID-19 guidelines by not wearing a mask.