At the heart of Telangana’s political discourse at the moment is a fake logo, associated with the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation. The logo — which started circulating after the corporation announced a change in its abbreviation from TSRTC to TGSRTC — has led to the registration of a case against a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and an activist, who the Congress has accused created it with the intention of ‘maligning’ the corporation and the state government. The BRS, in turn, has alleged that the Congress government is targeting their activists, when the logo had in fact first appeared in a WhatsApp group of Congress leader and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
It was on Thursday, May 23, that the Chikkadpally police booked Konatham Dileep and V Harish Reddy for allegedly “creating and circulating” a fake new logo through their social media handles. Konatham Dileep was the director of the digital media wing under the former BRS government, while Harish Reddy is a party activist who looks after BRS’ USA wing. They were booked based on a complaint by RTC’s Chief Traffic Manager (M&C) Anchuri Sridhar, who also alleged that Harish posted an “abusive video using unparliamentary language.” The complainant claimed that this damaged the reputation of both the corporation and the state government.
Notably, both Dileep and Harish had criticised the ‘new logo’ on their social media platforms, questioning why it didn’t contain the images of the iconic Charminar and the Kakatiya Arch as in the corporation’s original logo. The fake logo only contained the letters T-G-S-R-T-C arranged in a circle, with arrows between every two letters pointing outward.
The duo, however, denied creating the logo and claimed that they had simply shared the image that was doing rounds in the media. They also accused the Congress government led by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of targeting them, and asked why the Telangana police weren’t booking the media outlets that also purportedly circulated the ‘fake logo’.
Dileep said that two days ago (May 22), a picture of the ‘new RTC logo’ was shared in the official WhatsApp group of Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar. “Numerous media outlets released it on May 22, and I also came across it from journalist friends in media groups. I put up a post on social media criticising the lack of Charminar and Kakatiya Arch in the old RTC logo. A day later, RTC officials contacted me and explained that they have not finalised the new logo yet. Then I deleted my social media posts. But (on May 23), the Revanth government filed a false case against me and my friend Harish Reddy. RTC brazenly accused us of making the fake logo and filed cases against us under various sections,” Dileep said.
The two BRS activists have been currently charged under sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 505 (1)(b)(c) (making, publishing, or circulating any statement, rumour, or report with intent to cause fear or alarm to the public) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 67 (punishment for the transmission or publication of any obscene material in any electronic form) of the Information Technology Act has also been invoked.
After the case was registered, the BRS on its official X handle shared a screen-grab video from Minister Ponnam Prabhakar’s official media group, where the logo was purportedly shared first. The video shows a document shared by the name ‘logo.png’. BRS leaders Krishank Manne and Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy also shared screenshots of media houses that posted the fake TGSRTC logo.
Following this, BRS leader and former minister KT Rama Rao also questioned why cases weren’t being registered against the media houses allegedly associated with the Congress party for circulating the logos. “If (the Telangana police and the TGSRTC) continue this harassment under the direction of political bosses, we will drag you to the court of law and make sure justice is delivered,” he said.
The TGSRTC management, meanwhile, has clarified in an official statement that they have only altered the corporation’s abbreviation and not the logo. “The logo that is being promoted on social media as the new logo claimed to be of TGSRTC is fake. The TGSRTC management hasn’t finalised a new logo yet,” said VC Sajjanar, managing director of TGSRTC.
The Congress government had issued the order to replace the state’s vehicle registration digits from ‘TS’ to ‘TG’ on May 16. CM Revanth had alleged that the digits ‘TS’ was chosen during the 2014 Assembly election campaign solely to benefit the BRS party, which was formerly called ‘TRS’ (Telangana Rashtra Samithi). He also pointed out that the word “state” does not appear in the alphabet portion of the vehicle registration number in any other state in the nation. Later on May 22, the state RTC also changed its abbreviation from TSRTC to TGSRTC as per the state government’s orders.