We won't accept Sept 17 as Hyderabad Liberation Day: TRS to BJP

Hyderabad, Sep 7: The ruling TRS in Telangana has rejected Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu's suggestion to officially celebrate 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' on September 17 and accused the BJP of trying to indulge in "divisive politics".

"Moderate Telangana people do not believe in the Liberation Day. We believe in a day where Telangana state was merged into the Indian union," TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha told PTI here.

Naidu had last week said that even though people all over the country celebrated and rejoiced the hard won freedom from British on August 15, 1947, those living in the erstwhile Hyderabad state had to wait for celebration till September 17, 1948, when the region was liberated from the tyrannical Nizam's rule and integrated with the rest of India.

"While the BJP has been demanding for the past many years for official celebration of the Liberation of Hyderabad State, it is unfortunate some political parties view even matters relating to the nation's integrity through the prism of vote bank politics," Naidu had said.

There should not be any kind of politics, leave alone vote bank politics, when it comes to unity and integrity of the nation, the senior BJP leader had said.

"Hyderabad Liberation Day is being celebrated officially on September 17 in some of the districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka and my suggestion to Telangana government is to follow suit. I hope it would respond positively to the suggestion," he said.

During the "autocratic" rule of the Nizam, Telugu language was discouraged as the medium of instruction in educational institutions, he had said. Kavitha, the Lok Sabha member from Nizamabad, noted that even during the movement spearheading statehood demand for Telangana, TRS always used to celebrate it as a merger day, and hoist national flag in party office on that day because the "then Andhra government would not recognise this day".

"But then the BJP's view of thinking about it as liberation from the Nizam's rule does not have greater acceptance in Telangana society. It will be divisive to talk about that. But as a day of merger with Indian Union, we will certainly acknowledge it and celebrate it," she said, when her reaction was sought on Naidu's suggestion.

PTI