'Nizams issue' to top GHMC election campaign

Hyderabad, Dec 2: Eying the muslim vote bank in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election and to gain their support for the Telangana movement, all political parties are sharpening their 'swords' to attack each other on 'Nizams' ruling' issue.

The pro and anti-Telangana parties had added the 'Nizam ruling' issue to their political agenda and election campaign, besides the issues of GO 610 implementation in Telangana, construction of pending irrigation projects and allocation of more funds for the Telangana region.

TRS senior leader and party General Secretary Prakash said the intention of TRS President and former Union Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao in making the statement was to allay the apprehensions that Nizam rulers were against the Hindus. The rulers had treated Muslims and Hindus equally, he added.

Mr Rao had praised the Nizam dynasty, while paying floral tributes to the last Nizam ruler Osman Ali Khan on the occasion of his 41st death anniversary recently.

''But the political parties were highlighting the 'Rajakaar' movement to uproot the Hindu community. The fact was that 3,000 Telangana citizens were killed after the democratic government took over the reigns of Hyderabad province from the Nizam dynasty in 1948. Only 1,000 were killed during 'Rajakaar' movement,'' Mr Prakash alleged.

All political parties have hurt the sentiments of the Muslims by accusing the Nizam rulers of having ''hatred'' towards Hindus.

They had ''distorted'' the history and ''victimised'' the Muslims, he alleged.

''We want to revive the cordial relationships between Hindus and Muslims. There is no question of taking back the statements of the TRS President,'' Mr Prakash said.

Meawhile, BJP leader and former Union Minister Ch Vidyasagar Rao alleged that the TRS President's statements were intended to ''fool'' the people of Telangana. ''Whatever the Nizams have done in the Telagnana region was only to appease the majority Hindus. It is not relevent for a Lok Sabha MP of a democratic country to praise the Nizams. People have understood that Mr Rao is a supporter of dictatorship,'' the BJP leader alleged.

''We should not sit quiet. The BJP will counter the TRS if the issue is given front seat in the GHMC election campaign,'' he said.

Terming the TRS Chief's statements ''part of his cheap politics,'' CPI(M) floor leader N Narasimhaiah said the majority of Muslims had opposed the Nawab rule. ''He should have observed the Nizam rulers' cruelty towards the people,'' he added.

''The TRS President has already failed to control his party MLAs and MPs as most of them were against him and resorting to anti-party activities,'' he alleged.

The TDP General Secretary K Srihari contended that the TRS President was only ''belittling'' Telangana's struggle by eulogising the ''autocratic'' rule of the Nizams.

The Telangana people still remember with horror the massacre by the 'Rajakaars' during the Nizam rule, he pointed out.

According to the TDP leader, showering encomiums on the rule of Nizams was like lauding the Britons for the Parliament building and railway network, belittling Mahatma Gandhi.

UNI