Shah slams parties for pursuing vote bank politics, ignoring Hyderabad Liberation Day

HYDERABAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday hit out at “political parties pursuing vote bank politics” for ignoring the celebration of Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 despite the formation of a separate state. Without naming any particular political party, Shah said these parties are “uncertain whether they should celebrate the day or not. Let me remind them that the political parties that are worried and those who turn away from history, will realise people will turn away from them.”

Shah was addressing a gathering at the Parade Grounds where the Government of India, for the second year running, celebrated the liberation of the then Hyderabad state on September 17, 1948. "For decades no government celebrated the day and it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day last year decided that Telangana’s liberation should be celebrated under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture," he said.

“The 399 days after India achieved Independence in 1947 were nothing short of hell in Hyderabad State and it was the then Home Minister and Iron Man of India, Sardar Patel who decided that the only solution to end the woes of the people suffering under the rule of the Nizam and atrocities of the Razakaars was to use force and liberate Hyderabad,” Shah said. And on the 400th day, this was achieved without shedding a single drop of blood and the Nizam capitulated paving the way for Hyderabad State, with the Telangana region, Bidar in Karnataka and Marathdwada in Maharashtra being liberated, he said.

It is important that we celebrate this day to keep the generations that will follow us informed about our history, so it can inspire them, and us, to rededicate ourselves for the development and well-being of India, Shah said.