On the 70th Liberation Day of Hyderabad on Monday marking the merger of the erstwhile princely State of Hyderabad into the Indian Union following a military action in 1948, the BJP launched a fresh onslaught on the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
As the day has come in the thick of the election campaign in the State, the saffron party has put the occasion to full use to target the TRS, questioning why it did not celebrate the day officially during its four-year long rule.
“When it couldn’t celebrate the most important day in the history of Telangana how it can claim itself to be the champion of the State”, asked BJP state floor leader G Kishan Reddy.
While all other parties including the TRS, Congress and the Left marked the day by hoisting national flags at their respective party offices, the BJP adopted an aggressive posture linking its programmes to the party’s election campaign.
The national flag was hoisted at the State BJP headquarters in the presence of the top State BJP leaders, including the State president K Lakshman and former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.
They promised that after coming to power in the State the BJP will officially celebrated “Telangana Vimohana Day” or celebration day. A similar promise was made by the BJP national president Amit Shah during his visit on Saturday.
Kishan Reddy who paid tributes to the Telangana martyrs at the memorial alleged that the TRS was playing into the hands of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). “TRS has done a great injustice to Telangana by not celebrating the day. It will be possible only if BJP comes to power. We will organize official celebration in every government office when we come to power”, Reddy said.
He urged the people to stand up against the vote bank politics of K Chandrasekhar Rao. He said that KCR did not have any moral right to ask for votes when he had failed to keep any promise made to the people.
Reacting angrily to the senior TRS leader K Taraka Rama Rao describing BJP as “Bharatiay Jhoota Party”, Kishan Reddy said, “If he calls our party like that then the TRS is Telangana Razakars Party”.
He was referring to the Razakars, a private militia force in Nizam reign which fought against the Indian army during the operation polo. Nizam rule had come to an end on September 17, 1948 after a three day long “Operation Polo” by the Indian army at the behest of then home minister Sardar Patel.
BJP has been demanding that the day should be celebrated officially in Telangana like it was done in the parts of Nizam dominion which were merged into Karnataka and Maharashtra.
BJP leaders also recalled statements of the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on various occasion in which he had expressed his admiration for the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan for his benevolent rule and the Hindu-Muslim harmony and composite culture which prevailed during his reign. In the past KCR rejected the demand for celebration of Liberation Day saying it was a “merger day” and some people want to use it to create a discord among the people on communal lines.