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The Miss World event that Telangana is hosting this year has become the new battleground in the state. The Congress is pitching it as a step towards promoting tourism, while the principal Opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is questioning the finances involved in hosting the event.
The controversy started off with a tweet by BRS working President K T Rama Rao on March 11. Rao claimed the Congress government was spending “Rs 200 crore worth of public money” on a beauty contest and claimed that his government had conducted public events of international repute for much less. He gave the example of the Formula-E race held in Hyderabad in 2023, the first such event with electric cars in the country, which is currently being probed by the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for alleged financial irregularities.
“Apparently spending ₹46 Crore for Formula – E race in Hyderabad was wrong & will attract cases being filed… But spending Rs 200 Crores of public money to conduct Miss World, a beauty contest is right !! What is this perverse logic? Can you please explain,” Rao wrote.
Rao has also consistently been hitting out at the Revanth Reddy Congress government over management of statement finances. In another tweet on March 17, Rao spoke of “a deficit of a whopping Rs 71,000 crores !!” in the state, adding that “negative growth is a direct result of the negative politics and policies of Congress government”.
Other party leaders also spoke similarly.
“Financial wisdom says never spend your money before you have it. Unfortunately, Revanth Reddy does not realise this fact. He finds fault with holding the Formula E race and now he is talking of spending Rs 200 crore for the Miss World pageant,” MLC-elect Dasoju Sravan said.
Sravan added that the expenditure on the Miss World event will not guarantee the Congress’s election promises such as the “Rs 4,000 pensions” or the “Rs 2,500 monthly assistance for women under the Mahalakshmi scheme”.
The Congress has said the BRS was “making baseless accusations”, and claimed the party had its priorities in order.
“If Revanth Reddy was not serious about education, why would the government allocate Rs 200 crore per Assembly constituency to ensure digital integration of schools. The government is doing all it can to address unemployment too. Over 50,000 government posts have been filled since we came to power. The BRS should look into the mirror before making any baseless allegations,” said Sivanath Reddy, general secretary of Telangana Youth Congress.
While announcing the event earlier this month, which is slated to be held between May 7 and 31, the Telangana government said it would “reinforce its image as a progressive, culturally rich and tourist-friendly state”. The state government has not officially spoken of the expenditure that will be incurred for the event.
The Miss World competition, which began in 1951 in the UK, was first hosted by India in 1998, when Bengaluru was the site for the pageant. Last year, Mumbai was the host for its 71st edition.
In 1998, when actor Amitabh Bachchan organised the beauty contest through Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (ABCL), it saw various protests. Amidst the Opposition, the swimsuit round had to be moved to Seychelles.
“The numerous protests included self-immolation. Strange bedfellows found themselves entwined in their mutual outrage – feminists who found such contests degrading to women and Hindu nationalists who saw the show as an invasion of Western degeneracy. The swimsuit competition had to be moved to the nearby and more hospitable Seychelles Islands,” a report by The New York Times said at the time.
