A controversy over activist and author Hamara Prasad’s Telugu book Kalpitha Nayakudu (The Fabricated Leader) has intensified across Telangana, with Dalit and Ambedkarite organisations staging protests and demanding his immediate arrest and a halt to the book’s publication.
Complaints have also been filed with the police in different locations. In Dubbaka of Medak district, Telangana Mala Mahanadu leaders approached the police seeking action over what they described as objectionable remarks about Ambedkar. The controversy has also reached the Telangana High Court.
The dispute follows a 2023 controversy involving Prasad, when Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police arrested him after a video containing provocative remarks about Ambedkar circulated on social media.
In response to a petition seeking to stall the release of the book on the grounds that it could lead to public disorder and promote enmity between communities, the Telangana government has told the court that the author had been arrested in a case registered over the book’s alleged defamatory and derogatory content.
