‘Political parties hesitant to celebrate T’gana Liberation Day due to vote-bank politics’

Hyderabad, Sep 17: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said even after the formation of the state of Telangana, political parties were hesitating to celebrate ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ to pursue vote-bank politics.
Speaking at the Centre’s official celebration here of ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’, the day the princely state of Hyderabad merged with the Indian Union on September 17, 1948, he said it was “very unfortunate” that political parties were hesitating to celebrate the day due to vote-bank politics.
“I would like to tell them that people of the country would turn away from those who turn away from their country’s history,” he said.
Shah said that Telangana and the country can be taken forward only by respecting the nation’s history, the sacrifices of martyrs and the country’s freedom struggle.
September 17 is observed differently by the various parties in Telangana.
While the BJP has been fighting for the official celebration of the day as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ for over two decades now, the BRS government today celebrated the day as ‘National Integration Day’.
The CPI organised weeklong celebrations of ‘Telangana Armed Struggle’. The left party contends that the armed struggle spearheaded by the Communists led to the merger of Hyderabad State into the Indian union.
The AIMIM is organising a bike rally and public meeting on the occasion of ‘National Integration Day’ on September 17.
Marking ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’, Union home minister Shah hoisted the national flag and received the guard of honour on the occasion.
He recalled the atrocities committed by the ‘razakars’ (armed supporters of Nizam) during the Nizam’s rule in the places that are in present day Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka, which were parts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state.
Shah credited the country’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with the liberation of Hyderabad and said that today Telangana is completing 75 years of the liberation and if the ‘Iron Man’ had not been there, Telangana would not have got liberation so soon.
Home Minister Amit Shah said it was Patel who, following the principle of Nation First, planned the Hyderabad Police Action and forced the Nizam’s razakar army to surrender without bloodshed. (PTI)