TRS govt declares Sep 17 as Telangana ‘National Integration Day’
This comes as a response to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run central government's announcement to organise a year-long ‘celebration’ marking ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ starting from September 17.
Hyderabad: The TRS government on Saturday announced that September 17 will be celebrated as the Telangana National Integration Day. Celebrations will be conducted officially across the state for three days from September 16 to 18, the state government informed.
“Telangana has transitioned from an autocracy to a democratic system and on September 17, 2022, the transition marks 75 years. On this occasion, the state cabinet has decided to conduct celebrations on September 16, 17 and 18 across the state as the ‘ Telangana Jaatiya Samaikyata Vajrotsavalu‘ (Telangana National Integration Diamond Jubilee celebrations) a tweet from Telangana CMO said.
This comes as a response to the BJP-led Centre’s announcement that it will conduct ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ this year on September 17 evoking reactions from all political parties in the state.
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao demanding that the celebrations of Hyderabad Liberation Day should instead be celebrated under the title of National Integration Day.
This comes as a response to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-run central government’s announcement to organise a year-long ‘celebration’ marking ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ starting from September 17. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has also been invited for the same. On that date in 1948, the erstwhile state of Hyderabad run by the Nizams was annexed to India.
In a letter addressed to the chief ministers of Telangana (K. Chandrashekhar Rao), Maharashtra and Karnataka, union culture minister G. Kishan Reddy invited them as guests of honour for the inaugural event of the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ event in Telangana. The entire state, along with five districts of Maharastra and Karnataka, were part of the Nizam’s Hyderabad princely state.
Kishan Reddy, in typical right-wing nomenclature, in his letter said that the year-long event is being held as part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav’ celebrations that the Centre has undertaken to mark India’s 75 years of independence. The union minister in his letter said that the state of Hyderabad had been “freed” from the Nizam’s “tyranny”.
The irony however is that the BJP did not exist when the state of Hyderabad was annexed with the military offensive called Operation Polo. In fact Telangana was mostly in control of the Communist Party of India (CPI). The Indian army was sent by the Centre on September 13 after negotiations with the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan fell through after independence. The state was formally annexed to India on September 17.
More importantly, the annexation is also a painful memory for many Muslims in the Hyderabad state, given that there was a massacre of thousands from the community after the Indian army took over the state. The atrocities against Muslims are well documented in the Sunderlal Committee (set up by India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru) to look into the atrocities of Muslims) report.
The BJP union minister in his letter also noted that parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka which were under Nizam’s territory already observe ‘Marathwada Liberation Day’ and ‘Hyderabad-Karnataka Liberation Day’ every year. Every year the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit has also been demanding the current Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government observe ‘Liberation Day’ on September 17.
