Hyderabad: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the chief guest at the ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ celebrations organised by the Central Government at the Parade Ground here on Wednesday. BJP sources said on Tuesday that Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Coal and Mines Minister G Kishan Reddy and Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar will also be present on the occasion.
The event is organised to commemorate the anniversary of the merger (17 September 1948) of the then Hyderabad state under Nizam rule into the Indian Union. Recalling the important role played by the country’s first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in integrating the Hyderabad princely state into the Indian Union, Telangana BJP President N Ramachandra Rao urged people to attend the celebrations organised at the Parade Ground in large numbers.
The incident of September 17, 1948 is interpreted differently by various parties in Telangana. The Central Government has been organising ‘Liberation Day’ for the last several years. The Telangana government will observe the day as ‘Praja Palana Dinotsavam’ (Celebration of People’s Rule Day), while the previous BRS government observed the day as ‘National Unity Day’.
The BJP has been demanding for the past two decades that September 17, the day of liberation of Hyderabad state from the tyrannical rule of the Nizam, should be officially observed by the state government. The BJP leaders allege that the governments after the formation of undivided Andhra Pradesh and Telangana refused to officially observe September 17 due to appeasement and vote bank politics.
The CPI observes September 17 as the successful culmination of the Communist-led ‘Telangana Armed Struggle’, which the party says forced the Nizam to merge Hyderabad state with the Indian Union.
