Amit Shah slams KCR for not celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day

The BJP President Amit Shah lambasted Telangana CM KCR for not celebrating 17th September as Hyderabad Liberation Day due to fear of AIMIM. Invoking Telugu Pride, Amit Shah said, “People who talk about Telugu pride stopped celebrating Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 because KCR is scared of MIM and its president Asaduddin Owaisi.” He also said that a party that comes under pressure from Owaisi and AIMIM, can never protect the pride and honour of Telangana. Amit Shah promised that if the BJP is voted to power in Telangana then it would celebrate grand Telangana Liberation Day in the entire country.

The state of Telangana came into existence in 2014. During the first-ever Telangana state assembly elections in 2014, the party of KCR- Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) – promised to celebrate the day of September 17. However, after he won the election, KCR failed to fulfill his promise. The celebrations on 17 September were absent in 2014 and 2015. In 2016 also no celebrations were held. In the same year Vice President and the then Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu wrote to the Telangana government reminding it of its promise to celebrate the momentous day of September 17. But, TRS government paid no heed to his letter and his request.

The reason behind not celebrating the day of 17 September is blatant appeasement politics of KCR. According to a Swarajya report, his party even equated the September 17 celebrations with insulting Nizam and by extension, angering the Muslim community.

Such a statement is an insult to sacrifices made by people for integration of Hyderabad into India. Many people sacrificed their lives and fought to liberate Hyderabad from the clutches of the tyrannical rule of the Nizam. Integration of Hyderabad was an extremely important step towards creating a unified India. The Nizam of Hyderabad employed each and every means to remain independent. The terror unleashed by Nizam’s backed militia called the Razakars was a time of suffering for Hindus. Bloodthirsty Razakars carried out the systematic pogrom. They perpetuated killings, lootings and rape against the Hindu populace. Carnage stopped only after Indian Army launched Operation Polo and Nizam was forced to surrender at 5 pm on 17th September.

And now, after seventy years, in order to appease the political inheritors of Nizam and due to the fear of losing Muslim votes, the TRS government has consistently refused to celebrate the occasion. By turning blind eye to the historical significance of the day, the TRS government is insulting the valuable sacrifices made by the Hindus of Telangana who ensured that the state remain a part of the unified India. The government has not just refused to celebrate the momentous day but it also kept the children of Telangana unaware of the history of the state and how it became part of India. Keeping a person unaware of their history should be considered a crime. And what Telangana and Andhra Pradesh government have done is no less than a crime. “History is important,” said Howard Zinn. He further said, “If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.”