Liberation not celebrated due to politics of vote banks: Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday hit out at "parties pursuing vote bank politics" for ignoring the Telangana Liberation Day celebrations on September 17, despite the formation of a separate state. Without naming any political party, Shah said these parties are "uncertain whether they should celebrate the day or not. Let me remind them that these parties that are worried, those who turn away from history, will realise people will turn away from them."

Shah was addressing a large gathering at the Parade Ground where the Government of India, for the second year running, celebrated the liberation of the then Hyderabad state on September 17, 1948. He said that for decades, no government celebrated the day and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day last year, decided that Telangana’s liberation should be celebrated under the aegis of the ministry of culture.

"The 399 days after India achieved Independence in 1947 were nothing short of hell in Hyderabad state and it was the then home minister and Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel, who decided that the only solution to end the woes of the people suffering under the rule of the Nizam and atrocities of the Razakaars was to use force and liberate Hyderabad," Shah said.

And on the 400th day, the Nizam capitulated, paving the way for Hyderabad state, with the Telangana region, Bidar in Karnataka and Marathwada in Maharashtra being liberated, he said.

Shah said: "Without hesitation, I can say without Sardar Patel, Telangana could not have been freed. Patel put the country first and working as a team with K.M. Munshi, liberated Hyderabad state without shedding a drop of blood."

It is important that we celebrate this day to keep the generations that will follow us informed about our history, so it can inspire them, and us, to rededicate ourselves for the development and well-being of India, Shah said.

 "I want to remind



people and families who suffered untold miseries under the Razakars, (Sardar) Patel had said a that and independent Hyderabad in the heart of India was like a cancer in India’s stomach and an operation is needed. Ando so he launched the Police Action and freed this region," Shah said.

Paying tribute to the lakhs of people who fought for freedom from Nizam’s rule, Shah recalled the horrors of the last year of Nizam’s rule and said in Parkala, many were killed by the Razakaar army when they tried to hoist the Indian Flag, with similar incidents taking place in Bidar and Marathwada. "They are the kind of events that make your hair stand on their ends," Shah said.

Union minister for culture G. Kishan Reddy, whose ministry organised the celebrations, said some parties refuse to recognise that Hyderabad state was liberated and are, instead, calling it ‘integration’.

"Even today, after all these years, they are trying to cheat people. When the rest of India was celebrating Independence, people of Hyderabad were facing terrible atrocities. For 75 years, this history was sought to be buried and under Modi’s leadership and Amit Shah’s guidance, the day of liberation is being celebrated now," he said.

Several officials from various central security forces, whose contingents took part in a march past, along with senior leaders from the BJP, attended the event.

Also marking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday, the start of the ‘Sewa Pakhwada’ by the BJP, Shah distributed battery-operated tricycles to the differently abled at the venue.

Shah also released special postal covers commemorating the lives of  Shoaibullah Khan, the journalist who wrote against the Nizam and his government, and Ramji Gond, who battled the Nizam’s forces. The Union home minister also laid a foundation stone for a family residential complex for the Seema Suraksha Bal in the city.