Why was Hyderabad liberation day not celebrated before BJP started it?

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the state and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are poised for a showdown on September 17, the day in 1948 when the once princely state of Hyderabad merged with India. Union government celebrated it as 'Hyderabad Liberation Day' and the Telangana government celebrated it as 'National Integration Day' as the BJP and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) compete to awaken sensitivities in their attempts to woo the electorate for the Telangana assembly polls scheduled for next year.

While the TRS-led state administration has decided to observe the day as Telangana National Unity Day, the BJP-led Union government has announced that it will observe it as Hyderabad State Liberation Day.

On September 17, 1948, the Nizam of Hyderabad Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh in line of the Asaf Jahi dynasty, surrendered following Operation Polo, the military invasion of Hyderabad by Indian forces. It is commonly believed to be the day Hyderabad became a part of the Indian Union. Actually, not so much. Formal and complete accession occurred on January 26, 1950 when the Nizam was made the 'Rajpramukh' of the state of Hyderabad by the Government of India.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah On September 17 kicked off the celebration by raising the national flag at the Parade Grounds in Hyderabad. Crediting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for the liberation of Hyderabad, the Union Minister blamed previous governments for ignoring the day all these years for their vote bank policy.

“The people of the state wanted to officially celebrate Hyderabad Liberation Day. Different political leaders pledged to celebrate the day. However, once in power, they refused to celebrate the day because of the vote bank policy,” said the Union Minister, addressing the crowd that had gathered to witness the first official celebrations of what the Union Government calls Hyderabad Liberation Day. Shah also said that it is the "fear of the Razakars" that prevents governments from officially celebrating the day.

Why was Hyderabad liberation day not celebrated?

The BJP has been demanding for years that September 17 be officially celebrated as it has been in Maharashtra and Karnataka as Marathwada Liberation Day and Hyderabad-Karnataka Liberation Day, respectively.

Some regions of the two states have been ceded from the former princely state of Hyderabad. BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, have been taking aim at the TRS government for not officially celebrating September 17 due to what they allege is AIMIM's "fear".

According to the Indian Express, BJP National Secretary General Tarun Chugh claimed that the TRS was forced to announce the celebration of September 17 as "Telangana National Unity Day" as a result of the Centre's celebration plans.

Previously, Hyderabad Liberation Day was not celebrated in Telangana for purely political reasons. The state government was supposedly trying to protect its ally, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).

Haragopal, a former professor at the University of Hyderabad, said the reason for the BJP's "Liberation Day" is to send a message to its Hindu supporters about how the region has been liberated from Nizam rule, reports ThePrint.

“Given its ideology and key vote bank, the BJP wants to remind people that the ruler was Muslim, how Hyderabad freed itself from Nizam rule and the atrocities committed by Razakars.”

Why Telangana Govt observe it as National Integration Day?

'Operation Polo' was a painful memory for the minority Muslim community. The Sundarlal Committee Report submitted in 1949, said that between 27,000 and 40,000 people were killed during the operation. The report also cites how women of Laxmipuram were raped and their gold and money looted.

The TRS hates that the day is called Hyderabad Liberation Day and describes it as part of the saffron vocabulary. Furthermore, Owaisi, the MP from Hyderabad, had also asked KCR to celebrate the day as National Integration Day to mark "the people's struggle against British colonialism and the feudal rule of the Nizam".

While the TRS government is organizing a public meeting in the Public Gardens, where the Prime Minister will unfurl the national flag on September 17, the AIMIM, on September 16, will hold a motorcycle rally in Tiranga followed by a meeting public. The TRS is also holding mass rallies in all assembly constituencies on September 16. Cultural programs will be held at all district venues on September 18. The BJP says that calling September 17 National Integration Day is a placation of AIMIM.

Integration of Hyderabad into India

But there is much more to police action, given that at least 27,000 to 40,000 Muslims have been killed in targeted sectarian killings in the state of Hyderabad. So what started it all? The problem originally arose after Mir Usman Ali Khan, the last ruler of the Hyderabad state, wanted to be independent and not join the Indian Union.

Here is the whole sequence of events

After independence, Usman Ali Khan’s government and the Indian Union began negotiations, later insisting on allowing the state of Hyderabad, which was besieged by India, to remain independent. The last system, on the other hand, did its best to do just that. As a result, the two sides signed a one-year ‘Standal Agreement’ on November 1, 1947, to discuss the issue.

Nawab Najaf Ali Khan, who belongs to the Nizam Hyderabad family and is ranked 36th in terms of inheritance, says the wounds of the September 17, 1948 attack are deep and still fresh. It was not Independence Day but the day of the massacre, the effects of which are still felt today.

The Indian government calls the Hyderabad attack a ‘police action’, also known as ‘operation polo’. According to the Indian government, the police action was inevitable, but Hyderabad-based scholar Syed Ali Hashmi wrote a book in response entitled “The attack could have been avoided and avoided.”

In his book Innovative Innovation: 1948 Hyderabad’, he wrote that in India, the ‘ruling group, the rulers of India, wanted to integrate a developed state (Hyderabad) into India at all costs.’

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