In view of the year-long celebrations of 'Hyderabad State Liberation' planned by the Union government from September 17 this year to September 17 next year, University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar has asked various universities in Telangana, Karnataka and Marathwada region to take part in the programme. UGC has asked universities and colleges to hoist the national flag to mark the day. The BJP-led Union government had recently announced its decision to hold the year-long celebrations to mark 75 years of the Hyderabad state’s annexation to India. While the BJP has been accused of trying to advance a communal narrative with its push for celebrating the day as ‘Liberation Day’, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has decided to mark it as ‘Telangana National Integration Day’ instead.
According to IANS, the UGC Chairman has said, "I request the vice-chancellors of universities and principals of colleges in the state of Telangana, and districts of Marathwada and Karnataka to hoist the national flag at your respective institution. You may also take out 'Prabhat Pheris' (morning processions) on the morning of September 17." UGC Secretary Rajhish Jain on Tuesday, September 13, sent an official letter to the concerned institutions, stating that suitable activities on the theme of ‘Hyderabad State Liberation’ may be undertaken between September 17, 2022, and September 17, 2023.
The indicative list of activities comprises talks by eminent people on ‘the liberation of Hyderabad state’, street plays, exhibitions, social media awareness campaigns, quiz contests, essay competitions, film screenings, painting competitions etc. The UGC secretary wrote in his letter that the concerned universities and colleges are requested to encourage their faculty members, students and stakeholders to actively participate in these activities and also share the details regarding participation on their website and through emails. He also informed that the inaugural programme would be organised at Parade Grounds in Hyderabad on September 17 this year.
It was on September 17, 1948, that the Indian Union, led by Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Patel, annexed Hyderabad state through police action, dubbed 'Operation Polo’ and wrested power from Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of the princely state. It has been a longstanding demand of the BJP since the formation of Telangana to officially celebrate September 17 as 'Liberation Day', and has featured in the party’s aggressive Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election campaign in 2020. It has now been revived in a big way ahead of the 2023 Telangana Assembly election.
Thousands of Muslims were killed in ‘Operation Polo’, and the previous governments in united Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had avoided official celebrations around it fearing communal violence. The TRS too has rejected the BJP’s demand to mark it as ‘Liberation Day’, saying they would not accept such “divisive” demands. While the TRS and other parties in the past have observed the day as ‘Telangana Merger Day,’ this year, they have decided to celebrate it as the ‘Telangana National Integration Day’.
The decision came after All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Telangana Chief Minister, urging both the Union and state governments to celebrate the day as such. Owaisi had said in the letter that the common Hindus and Muslims of erstwhile Hyderabad state were advocates of a united India under a democratic, secular and republican government. The same was reflected in the report by Sunderlal Committee, set up to look into allegations of Muslims being raped and killed by Hindus and soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces, Owaisi said in the letter. “The struggles of the people of the erstwhile Hyderabad state against colonialism, feudalism and autocracy are a symbol of national integration rather than merely a case of ‘liberation’ of a piece of land or the removal of a ruler,” Owaisi had added in the letter.
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With IANS inputs