PV Sindhu - Olympic Silver Medalist - Felicitations and Controversies

The Olympic Silver Medal 2016 winner PV Sindhu is no doubt resident of Hyderabad all through. By birth & domicile she belongs to Hyderabad the capital of erstwhile AP and these days to Telangana. But her parents hail from a village in West Godavari dist and Vijayawada respectively. And nothing wrong for Andhraites felicitating this girl from Andhra as well.

Soon after Sindhu won the silver, Naidu quickly announced a Rs 3 crore cash reward for her along with a 1,000 square yard residential plot in AP's upcoming capital Amaravati. He also offered her Group I officer's post of special grade deputy collector in the AP government. On Tuesday an appointment order was kept ready for her, but Sindhu declined the offer. Telangana government biggies who had tweeted that a Rs 1 crore cash reward would be given to Sindhu upped the offer to Rs 5 crore soon after Naidu declared his intent to give Rs 3 crore.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Aug 22, 2016 presented a cheque of Rs. 5 Crore to Olympic Silver Medalist PV Sindhu. He also presented a cheque of Rs. 1 crore to her coach Pullella Gopichand. Speaking on the occasion, KCR said that the State Government would introduce a new Sports Policy to encourage young players like Sindhu.

A day after being felicitated by Telangana government, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu was accorded a rousing welcome by the Andhra Pradesh government for her stupendous performance at Olymics 2016 at Rio. A huge crowd lined up the streets of Vijayawada to greet Sindhu as she alongwith her coach Pullela Gopichand embarked on another open-top-motorcade from Gannavaram Airport to Indira Gandhi Stadium. Later, Sindhu and Gopichand was felicitated at the stadium by AP CM Chandrababu Naidu with a cheque for Rs. 3 crores, a 1000 sq yds plot at Amaravati etc.

Some controversies in social media are:

“Sindhu belongs to Telangana. Our name is world famous now because of her but Andhra Pradesh wants to steal her from us. Why are they interfering when we are honoring her? They must respect our statehood and back away from our state’s assets”, said a minister in Telangana government.

Meanwhile, P. Gopichand’s comment that Sindhu belongs to India has been dismissed by both state governments saying that nobody is Kabir Khan here and this is not a Bollywood film.

My View:
We are all Indians first and Indians last. It doesn't matter whether we belong to AP or TS or any other state. We are all national assets. I see KCR & Co spitting venom for AP's claim of Sindhu which in any way is inconsequential. His mouthpiece "Namaste Telangana" spreading false stories that Sindhu's father hails from Adilabad is despicable. This is nothing but poisoning the minds T people against Andhra people till the truth comes out little later.

I have no problem in KCR & Co claiming Sindhu as Telanganaite. But in the same way almost all Hyderabadis with AP origin should get their legitimate right as Telanganaite. In the recent past several people in TS Govt service with Andhra origin were identified and thrown out of their jobs of few decades and they were compelled to approach court for grievance redressal. This is contradictory.