Sometime in May 2014, artist Laxman Aelay was asked to design the emblem of the new Telangana State. “I thought of two dynasties the Muslim Qutb Shahi dynasty and the Hindu Kakatiya dynasties which represent the culture of the State. I did many iterations before arriving at the one that was accepted within hours of it being presented to the then Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. It was the first file to be signed the by CM,” says Mr. Aelay an artist who grew up in Kadirenigudem in Nalgonda and now calls Hyderabad as his home.
“I used a border of red colour to set off against the green colour. KCR wanted the colour changed to golden and also incorporated Urdu words ‘Telangana Sarkar’. The composition was simplified so that it should be usable at even 1 centimetre size,” says Mr. Aelay. The golden colour was a tip of hat to ‘Bangaru Telangana’. There other minor changes to keep protocol.
A decade down the line, the new government wants to change the emblem. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy spoke on the floor of the Legislature: “It is unfortunate that the State’s emblem has Charminar and the Kakatiya symbols. It symbolises aristocracy and dictatorship of rulers in the past. Hence its has been decided to change the official symbol of Telangana.”
