While Hyderabad is giving a hero's welcome to ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu, Telangana's deputy chief minister Mahmood Ali has jumped in with his two cents about the Olympic champion and her coach Pullela Gopichand, raking up controversy when none was warranted.
"We are planning to give Sindhu proper coaching so that she can fetch gold next time," Ali said.
Seemingly oblivious that his slight against Gopichand was bound to go down badly, Ali continued: "The coach that she has right now is also good but beyond that, we wish for her to get a gold from the next tournament."
After becoming the second Indian to win the All England Open Badminton Championship in 2001, the 42-year-old sportsperson from Hyderabad has devoted himself to nurturing some of India's finest talent in badminton. The stadium which he set up in 2008 has produced some of India's top shuttlers including Sindhu, who won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Saina Nehwal, who won the bronze at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Twitter users came down like a tonne of bricks on Ali over his insensitive remarks which came across as a snide way to pitch Telangana against Andhra Pradesh.
Gopichand's academy is built on land which was gifted to him by Chandrababu Naidu, who was Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2003.
While the AP government has announced a Rs 50 lakh cash prize for Gopichand, Telangana is giving him Rs 1 crore.
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