HYDERABAD: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday called upon the people of Telangana to forget parties that enjoy power but forget the core objective of scripting “Mahan” Telangana.
Shah called these parties traitors as they came to power by exploiting the sacrifices made by thousands of people in the Hyderabad liberation struggle but were ashamed of paying tribute to those who lost their lives. He was speaking at the 75th Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations organised by the Centre at Parade Ground.
The minister said that successive governments were afraid of celebrating Liberation Day because of vote bank politics though they had made tall promises in this regard either during the election campaign or political agitations.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided to celebrate Liberation Day officially, the rest of the political outfits too decided to celebrate it but were still afraid of calling it liberation. “Apne dil se yeh dar ukaad kar phekdo. Ab Razakar is desh ki nirnay nahi kar sakte (erase the fear of Razakars from your mind, they don’t decide anymore),” he said and thanked the Prime Minister for honouring the sentiments of the people of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana — where the erstwhile Hyderabad State was spread — with the decision to celebrate Liberation Day.
Amit Shah assured that the Centre would make the celebration an annual event, notwithstanding certain parties ignoring their duty of paying tribute to the martyrs. “We will celebrate with greater fervour,” he said and urged the universities in the three states to research and document the atrocities of Razakars and the brave struggle of people against them to instil patriotic fervour among the younger generations.
Shah said the draconian laws that were brought out by the Nizam in the name of efficient administration had, in reality, benefited him and the Razakars rather than the people. He referred to the laws that helped Nizam protect his assets, snatch people’s lands and enforced Urdu as the medium of instruction. “When India breathed (the air of) freedom, the people of Telangana were still suffering from the autocratic rule of Nizam and the atrocities of Razakars,” Amit Shah said.
The region, Shah said, would have continued to suffer but for the brave and timely Police Action launched by then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. “The dream of Akhand Bharat nurtured by Mahatma Gandhi would have been incomplete without loh purush (Iron Man Patel,” he said.
Amit Shah recalled the contributions of organisations like the Arya Maha Sabha, Hindu Jagruti Samiti, Hyderabad State Congress and individuals including Sardar Papanna Gaur, Turrebaz Khan, Moulana Alauddin, Bhagya Reddy Varma, Pandit Narendra Arya, Vande Mataram Ramachandra Rao, Shoebullah Khan, Mogiliya Gaur, Doddi Komarayya, Chakli Ilamma, Narayan Rao Pawar, Jagdish Arya and Gandaiah Arya who displayed supreme bravery while fighting the Nizam’s security forces.
Earlier, he reviewed the parade by Central security forces and cultural programmes depicting the local traditions. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Union tourism minister G. Kishan Reddy and Karnataka minister B. Sriramulu spoke on the occasion. Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was present.
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