HYDERABAD:
Rashtrapati Nilayam, the presidential residence, in the city on Sunday nearly caused an embarrassment to the Centre, with plans to celebrate September 17 as ‘Hyderabad Integration Day’, which is at complete variance with the Centre’s decision to mark the day as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’.
The Centre has made plans to hold the celebrations at Parade Ground in Secunderabad for the second year running and with Union home minister Amit Shah leading the celebrations like he did last year.
With each political party having its own nomenclature with the BJP going with Liberation Day, the Congress adopting Merger Day, and the BRS and its ally AIMIM choosing to celebrate it as ‘National Integration Day’, confusion over what exactly the day was about was just one official error away.
With Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi too set to celebrate ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ with President Droupadi Murmu taking part in the event, sources in the central government said alarm bells rang soon after the Rashtrapati Nilayam’s chosen name for the day reached New Delhi.
Sources said once this was realized, instructions were sent quickly to Rashtrapati Nilayam — the official annual southern sojourn residence of the President of India — that the “nomenclature of the event has to be consistent with how the Government of India celebrates the day.”
September 17 will be ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ or ‘Hyderabad Mukti Divas’, at Rashtrapati Nilayam, the sources said, adding that the nomenclature error has since been corrected.
