Fact Check: Viral image does not show new Telangana Talli statue
The State cabinet of Telangana, under the leadership of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, took some crucial decisions on February 4, 2024. The cabinet has decided to replace ‘TS’ with ‘TG’ to represent Telangana in vehicle registration numbers.
Claim :
The image shows a new statue of Telangana TalliFact :
The viral image shows the statue of Sonia Gandhi in a temple in Telangana.
The State cabinet of Telangana, under the leadership of Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, took some crucial decisions on February 4, 2024. The cabinet has decided to replace ‘TS’ with ‘TG’ to represent Telangana in vehicle registration numbers. In the four-hour meeting, the cabinet also decided to make changes to the Telangana Talli statue and Telangana government emblem which were designed by the BRS government.
Sources said that the current representation of Telangana Talli, as a woman from an affluent background, symbolized feudalism and the ruling class. They said the changes would be designed in a manner to depict her as a mother to all, on the lines of a rural worker or a revolutionary.
After this decision, several social media users have been sharing an image of a statue that resembles Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party claiming that to be the new Telangana Talli.
One of the users shared a video clip extracted from NDTV with the claim “New Telangana Talli Ponguleti was speaking about”
Others shared the image with the caption “New Telangana Talli?”
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. The image shows a statue of Sonia Gandhi installed in Telangana in 2017.
When we searched the viral image using Google reverse image search, we found that the image is of Sonia Gandhi’s idol in a temple built in Telangana.
According to the Times of India, which also shared the viral image of the statue, in 2014, when a new state of Telangana was created by the intervention of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Congress leaders across the district did the unthinkable; they constructed a temple and dedicated it to her in Mallial, a town in Telangana.
The video of the inauguration of the statue was also published by NDTV on January 8, 2014, with the title ‘A Goddess Sonia temple: Congress legislator’s thank-you for Telangana decision’.
Therefore, the viral image does not show the new Telangana Talli statue but a statue of Sonia Gandhi in a temple built in Mallial, Telangana. The claim is Misleading.
