Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting in Telangana’s Nirmal district, marking the day that the Nizam of Hyderabad acceded to the Indian union, which the BJP observes as Telangana Liberation Day. “The BJP will come to power in Telangana in 2024, and September 17 will be officially celebrated grandly as Telangana Liberation Day,” Amit Shah said.
Amit Shah’s visit to Telangana has also come amid campaigning efforts by all major parties in the state ahead of the Huzurabad Assembly bye-poll. Amit Shah urged people to vote for the BJP’s candidate Eatala Rajender, who recently switched allegiance from the ruling Telugu Rashtra Samithi (TRS) after being dropped from the state Cabinet following allegations of land grabbing. Eatala has consistently won from the Huzurabad constituency since 2009.
“Rajender’s election is coming up. TRS thinks it can win elections with money. Will Telangana choose a leader inclined to serve the people or the politics of money. Say goodbye to dynastic politics,” Amit Shah said. Noting that BJP won four seats in Telangana in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he said that in the next Lok Sabha polls, all the seats from Telangana will be gifted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BJP has been demanding that the government officially celebrate September 17 as Telangana Liberation Day, for a long time. The demand has been rejected by governments in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh as well as the TRS government in Telangana, on the grounds that it could lead to communal tension.
On this day in 1948, the then Hyderabad state was merged with the Indian Union. Under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel, Hyderabad state was annexed through a military operation known as 'Operation Polo’ or ‘police action’, by wresting power from the last Nizam of the princely state Mir Osman Ali Khan.
The public meeting was held at Veyi Udala Marri, located near a banyan tree, where the Nizam’s Razakars allegedly killed a thousand Adivasis fighting against the Nizam’s government, by hanging them to death.
Questioning the TRS government for not celebrating ‘Telangana Liberation Day’, Amit Shah said that Adivasis of Nirmal struggled against Nizams and the British under the leadership of Ramji Gond, and a thousand Adivasis were hanged at Veyi Udala Marri (thousand skulls’ banyan tree).
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