Don’t scratch old wounds: Owaisi

Hyderabad: Telangana TD?leader M. Narasimhulu joined the Congress leaders in crticising the TRS for praising the Nizams. “They (Razakars) stripped women on roads and forced them to play bathukamma,” the TD member alleged, adding that the TRS was insulting 4.5 crore Telangana people by hailing the Nizam.

Owaisi tried to pour oil on troubled waters by making an emotional appeal to members not to open old wounds. “If we scratch old wounds we will bleed and the bleeding will pain both Muslims and Hindus,” Owaisi said.

With other political parties continuing to indulge in Nizam-baiting, Owaisi explained the development and welfare initiatives taken up by the Nizams and praised the secular values of the erstwhile Hyderabadi rulers.

He ridiculed the Seemandhra leaders’ claims that the city was developed by the migrants and said Hyderabad had been a developed city much before Andhra Pradesh was formed.

“We are proud of the Nizams,” the MIM leader said, referring to the two truck loads of gold coins that the then Nizam gave to the Indian government during the war with China. He dared Dr Sailajanath to expose people who are responsible for the division of the state today. “Seemandhra people reposed faith in leaders like Sailajanath but they now feel betrayed,” Owaisi said.