Hyderabad: Telangana Rakshana Sena (TRS) president K Kavitha on Saturday, June 20, said that no one in India has the right to call another person a “Pakistani”, describing such remarks as unacceptable and a reflection of deep-rooted prejudice.
Kavitha urged the Telangana Police to take strict action against the secretary of a housing society under the Jawaharnagar Police Station limits, who allegedly used the slur while confronting a resident couple over an unregistered tenant.
“The secretary must face punishment for his remark,” she said.
In a post on X, Kavitha also cautioned people against reacting in ways that could help divisive elements exploit the situation.
“One bigot does not define an entire community, irrespective of which community the individual belongs to. Let’s not give polarising elements exactly what they want by allowing them to exploit our emotions. Their goal is to divide us, make us fight, and exploit that fracture,” she wrote.
She urged people to uphold Telangana’s tradition of communal harmony and added, “Let’s not resort to the same profiling we are fighting against.”
Kavitha’s remarks came two days after a dispute at Janapriya Lake Front Society in Kapra, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, turned into a communal controversy.
During an argument over an unregistered tenant, the managing committee secretary allegedly called a resident couple “Pakistani”, leading to a confrontation in the presence of police personnel.
A video of the incident that circulated widely on social media showed the resident objecting to the remark and referring to his family’s military background. He said his grandfather had served as a Subedar in the Indian Army.
“Don’t call me Pakistani, I am an Indian,” he said.
In the video, the secretary is heard responding, “I am just asking if you are a Pakistani, why are you staying here?”
The couple further alleged that the secretary accused them of being in the country to plant bombs.
“This man accused us of being Pakistani, he says we are here to plant bombs. The police are here but they aren’t doing anything,” the couple said in the video.
A day before Kavitha’s statement, Majlis Bachao Tehreek spokesperson Amjedullah Khan visited the family on Friday, June 19, after several social media users appealed to him to intervene.
Khan spent nearly five hours tracing the family before meeting Shaik Naseema at the apartment complex.
Naseema told him that she has been living in the flat with her husband, while her two sons work in Delhi. She alleged that a family friend, Prachee, had been staying with them temporarily after being asked to vacate her previous rented accommodation around Eid-ul-Adha, and that this became the reason for harassment from the apartment owner and some society members.
“Every Indian citizen, irrespective of religion, caste, or community, has the constitutional right to live with dignity and without fear. Branding an Indian Muslim as a ‘Pakistani’ is not only an insult to the individual concerned but also to the Constitution of India and the countless Muslims who have contributed to the nation,” Khan said.
He added that Hyderabad has long represented its *Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb* and said attempts to divide society along religious lines deserve strong condemnation.