Time to liberate people of Telangana from TRS, says Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would emerge victorious in the next Telangana assembly elections, besides winning all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 general polls.

Addressing a huge rally of the BJP workers on the outskirts of Nirmal district headquarters to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of Telangana Liberation Day (merger of erstwhile Hyderabad state with the Indian Union), Shah said it was time to liberate people of Telangana from the clutches of Telangana Rashtra Samithi to bring them the real freedom.

Telangana was under the autocratic regime of the Nizams. Thanks to the courageous decision of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, that Hyderabad was liberated from the Nizam’s rule, 13 months after Indian Independence and merged with the rest of India on this day in 1948, Shah said.

“Now, Telangana has once again come under a single-family rule. We need to display the same valour and get the state liberated from this family (of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao). Only then, the people of the state can breathe easy,” Shah asserted.

The Union home minister lashed out at the TRS government for not celebrating the Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 every year, fearing backlash from Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which was formed by the Razakars, the private army during the Nizam rule.

“When the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Maharashtra are celebrating the liberation day in the regions which were once part of the Hyderabad State during the Nizam regime, what prevented the Telangana government from not celebrating?” he asked.

Shah asserted that after the BJP forms the government in Telangana, it would officially celebrate the Telangana Liberation Day. “Unlike the TRS, we are not afraid of Majlis party. We shall commemorate the sacrifices made by the people of Telangana, including Dalits and girijans, for the liberation of Hyderabad state,” he said.

Stating that the entire country was celebrating the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, the home minister said on this occasion, a special Covid-19 vaccination drive was launched and over two crore people were being vaccinated across the country.

Shah was all praise for state BJP president and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay for taking up padayatra (foot march) to understand the people’s problems by directly interacting with them.

Speaking at the meeting, Sanjay demanded that the Telangana chief minister should tender apology to the people for not celebrating the Telangana liberation day officially. “He should remember that it was because of Sardar Patel, the Nizam rule came to an end and Telangana was merged with India. Had Patel not been there, Telangana would not have been a reality and KCR would not have become the chief minister,” he said.