Telangana Liberation Day: Vote-bank politics kept past govts from marking occasion, says Amit Shah

New Delhi, September 17

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday marked the Telangana Liberation Day at an official event in Hyderabad and said past governments hesitated to celebrate the occasion due to vote-bank politics.

Different events by parties

BRS marked the day as National Integration Day. The CPI, which contends that its cadres led the armed struggle that aided Hyderabad State’s merger into the Indian union, marked the ‘Telangana Armed Struggle Day’. AIMIM held a public meeting.

“Those who turn their backs on the history of their country, people turn their backs on them,” Shah said recalling as “cruel the 399 days of Nizam’s rule in the region post India’s independence.”

Shah said Sardar Patel ended the tyranny of the Nizam.

“Sardar Patel had done the work of liberating this region from the tyrannical Nizam rule. On August 10, 1948, Sardar Patel said there is only one way to solve the Hyderabad problem and that is the merger of Hyderabad with India,” the Home Minister noted.

Nizam’s army surrendered on September 17, 1948 merging the erstwhile princely state with India.

Telangana is due for elections with BRS, Congress and BJP facing off.