Warangal Urban Collector Amrapali Kata is facing a lot of flak for her Republic Day speech, in which she burst out laughing, unable to pronounce certain words in Telugu. The video has since gone viral, and Amrapali is at the receiving end for laughing inappropriately during an official event.
Addressing the gathering at the Hanamkonda police parade ground on Friday, the Collector gave a speech in Telugu after she hoisted the national flag.
Although Amrapali is from Andhra- Visakhapatnam, she struggled with her Telugu and fumbled on several occasions. She couldn’t resist laughing while speaking about the Open Defecation Free plan of the state. She burst out twice while pronouncing ‘Marugudhodlu’ (toilet) and quipped, ‘It’s funny’ which was, unfortunately for her, caught on the mic.
Understandably, owing to her huge popularity, the video went viral and critics have slammed her for not being serious enough at a public event, especially when it happened to be Republic Day.
Several have also claimed that she disrespected the language. Predictably, many started making sexist comments against her for the same.
Amrapali is an IAS officer from the Andhra cadre, 2010 batch. The 35-year-old collector is admired for breaking the mould of an administrator. She takes her staff for outings and films unlike other administrators. In 2017, she booked an entire theatre for her staff so that they could watch Baahubali 2. She later faced legal trouble when a petitioner accused her of misusing power to buy the tickets in bulk.
A testimony to her popularity is the recently built statue depicting her as Parvati, a Hindu goddess, during the Ganesh festival. Amrapali was shown holding Ganesh in the statue. However, the statue was later taken down after uproar from several for hurting their sentiments.