With all educational institutions, petrol pumps and commercial establishments remaining closed on Sunday, the response to the bandh call, given by the district unit of the Telangana JAC in protest against the suicide of 26-year-old MBA student Nunawath Bojya Naik, was complete and voluntary. Scores of top leaders from the TRS and the BJP attended the cremation of the student who immolated himself after being depressed over the delay in the creation of a separate Telan-gana state on Saturdaty, at his native place in Veerareddy thanda in Aswaraopally village of Raghunathpally mandal on Sunday afternoon.
Newly elected Station Ghanapur MLA T. Rajaiah led the funeral procession as Naik hailed from his constituency. BJP state chief G. Kishan Reddy was among high profile politicians who turned up to pay their tribute to Naik, who is now being hailed as a hero for his sacrifice made in the name of Telangana.
The funeral turned into an opportunity for the leaders to indulge in some Congress and Telugu Desam bashing. T. Harish Rao, Etala Rajender, Jup-ally Krishna Rao, D. Vinay Bhaskar, T. Rajaiah, Kaveti Sammaiah and Nagam Janardhan Reddy blamed the two parties for the spate of suicides for Telangana.
“Let the UPA introduce the Telangana bill in Parliament, we will support it. Otherwise, the BJP would introduce the bill in 2014 on its own,” said Mr Kishan Reddy, after paying tribute to Naik. MLA-elect Nagam Janard-han Reddy blamed Gover-nment Chief Whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy for Naik's death. “A murder case should be registered against him and he should tender his resignation for claiming that statehood sentiment would come down by 2014,” he said.
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Earlier, the funeral procession gave tense moments to the police as hundreds of youths targeted the residences and commercial pro-perties belonging to TD and Congress leaders on the way to the Martyrs’ Memor-ial from the MGM hospital.