Hyderabad: The appointment of ace tennis player and India’s only woman grand slam player Sania Mirza, 28, as Brand Ambassador of Telangana state by the government and rewarding her with a grant of Rs10 million (Dh611,246) has run into a roiling controversy with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Telugu Desam objecting to it.
BJP’s floor leader in the state assembly, K Lakshman, has objected to Telangana government’s choice of Brand Ambassador on the grounds that she is married to a Pakistani. “She is a daughter-in-law of Pakistan”, he said. (Sania is married to Pakistan’s Test cricketer, Shoaib Malek.)
Alleging that offering her this prestigious role was nothing but appeasement of the minorities and vote bank politics, Lakshman said, “The Chief Minister wants pre-1956 documents as proof of being a native even from those people hailing from Telangana to claim fee reimbursement (after the division of the former state of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and Seemandhra). But he makes an exception to a Pakistani daughter-in-law who was born in Mumbai and bred in Hyderabad.”
Lakskhman also found fault with Telangana’s Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for giving her a grant of Rs10 million while giving a reward of only Rs2.5 million to another achiever from Telangana, Malvath Poorna, who had scaled Mount Everest last month.
Telugu Desam Youth Wing Secretary Jimmy Babu also objected to Sania’s appointment. “Has she given proof of being a native of Telangana?”, he asked.
However, the state government has strongly defended its decision. “She is a Hyderabadi and a great achiever with international fame and acclaim. She was the most suitable choice as Brand Ambassador of Telangana,” said TV Ramana Chary, cultural advisory to the chief minister. “People are asking why not V.V. Lakshman or Sania Nehwal (as brand ambassadors for Telangana),” he said, going on to explain that “Sania Mirza is a class apart in terms of popularity. She is well-known in the field of sports as well as in the world of glamour,” he said, expressing confidence that her appointment will bring a lot of value to the state.
‘Gifted player’
Chief Minister KCR, who had handed over the appointment letter to Sania Mirza on July 22, described her as a gifted player. Pointing out that Telangana was the youngest state in the country, he said, “Who could be more suitable to represent the state than Sania Mirza?”
The grant of Rs10 million offered to her, he explained, was to help her in improving her coaching and training for her game and achieve more success. “If she goes up in the ranking and becomes world No. 1, the state will also benefit from it. Sania has reacted strongly to the row created by politicians. In a statement issued yesterday, she said to describe her as an outsider was condemnable as her family had been staying in Hyderabad for more than a century. She stressed that even after her marriage to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malek, she continues to be an Indian citizen.
“I am married to Shoaib Malek, who is from Pakistan. I am an Indian, who will remain an Indian until the end of my life,” her statement read.
“It hurts me that so much precious time of prominent politicians and the media is being wasted on a petty issue of my being appointed the Brand Ambassador of my state of Telangana. I sincerely believe that this precious time should be spent on solving the more urgent issues of our state and country,” Sania said in her statement.
