Sunburn Festival against Indian culture: Hyd Congress leader files petition to stop it

Former Congress MP V Hanumantha Rao said that youngsters were getting 'spoilt' due to the dance, music and alcohol.

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The Telangana unit of the Congress lashed out against the upcoming 'Sunburn festival', scheduled to be held at the Gachibowli Stadium in Hyderabad from Friday.

Former Congress MP V. Hanumantha Rao on Thursday submitted a representation to the Cyberabad Police Commissioner, requesting that the Sunburn festival be stopped.

Stating that it was 'against Indian culture', Hanumantha Rao said that youngsters were getting 'spoilt' due to the dance, music and alcohol, DC reported.

He also alleged that organisers were allowing youth who were below the age of 15, to buy tickets and enter the venue.

Meanwhile, TPCC spokesperson Addanki Dayakar said that the Telangana government was promoting 'drug culture' in the city, and accused Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of ignoring it.

He also asked how permission was given to the festival, while it was being denied for democratic protests by political parties and students.

This comes a day after Revanth Reddy, who recently defected to the Congress from the TDP, leveled allegations of drug abuse during the festival.

Speaking to the Times of India, Revanth said, "The high-end events, like 'Sunburn', are often used as a platform by drug mafia to supply drugs to youngsters and improve their network. Keeping in view that the event is open to children over 15 years age, the state government should immediately ban the event. While the KCR-led TRS government keeps denying permission to T-JAC to hold public meetings on the growing unemployment issue, it has the audacity to allow such events where there is a scope for drug consumption culture to spread."

On Thursday, Hanumantha Rao also visited the Gachibowli stadium and got into an argument with the police. He demanded that the permission given to the event, must be cancelled.

This is not the first time that the senior Congress leader has courted controversy.

In August this year, he asked KCR to watch the movie, Arjun Reddy, and issue orders to stop its screening all over Telangana.

The former Rajya Sabha MP also stopped an RTC bus in Hyderabad and tore the film’s poster stuck on it.

He reportedly said that such posters were responsible for corrupting the youth and ruining their future.