Union Home Minister Amit Shah to be chief guest at BJP's 'Telangana Liberation Day' on 17 September

Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah would be the chief guest at a public meeting to be organised by BJP on the occasion of ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ on 17 September. The meeting, being organised to commemorate the sacrifices of freedom fighters who fought against the Nizam and Razakars, would be held at the district headquarters town of Nirmal near Adilabad. Though the country got Independence on 15 August, 1947, the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad (under Nizam rule) was merged with the Indian Union on 17 September, 1948. The BJP have been demanding that the day be celebrated officially as ‘Telangana Liberation Day’. Telangana BJP general secretary G Premender Reddy, who issued a statement on the meeting to be attended by Amit Shah as chief guest, said the TRS government have not been celebrating the day though it is celebrated officially in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka in the districts which were part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state. The TRS government have not been celebrating the day though the entire Telangana region got “liberated from the Nizam”, Reddy said. During the separate Telangana agitation, TRS president and  incumbent Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had demanded official celebration of 17 September, he said. It is double standards on the part of Rao to go back on his stance after coming to power, he alleged. It can be assumed that Rao is not celebrating the day officially so as to please the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, he claimed. The memorial centres of martyrs should be developed as places to visit. BJP would intensify its agitation otherwise, he said. BJP sources claimed about 1,000 people fighting against the Razakars and Nizam were hanged from a banyan tree at Nirmal.