BJP has 'selective amnesia' on Telangana's past: TRS

HYDERABAD: As BJP celebrated " Telangana Liberation Day" today, ruling TRS accused it of "selective amnesia" and said this political strategy to expand its presence would not work in the state.

"BJP has the habit of raising communal issue whenever they feel that there is an opportune time. Even during the time of agitation (for separate statehood for Telangana), we had always said this is a merger day, not a liberation day," TRS Lok Sabha member Kalvakuntla Kavitha said.

BJP has been demanding that the Telangana Government officially celebrate the occasion as "liberation day" as Hyderabad State was "liberated" through "police action" on September 17, 1948, more than a year after India got independence.

BJP considers the Nizam's rule in the erstwhile Hyderabad State as "tyrannical", "oppressive" and "autocratic" and claims that Telugu language was discouraged as the medium of instruction in educational institutions during their period.

Kavitha noted that when Goa merged into India, the Central government called it liberation, while the Telangana (erstwhile Hyderabad State) operation in 1948 was termed as "police action, and they never said liberation of Telangana".

"So, that jargon (liberation) was never used. And if you look at national perspective, India itself is union of many, many princely states, now you want to go back and celebrate, what exactly you are trying to achieve?" Kavitha asked.

"You only want to recall the 1948 incident, what about 1969 incidents of Telangana agitation, what about 1952, what about 2001 ?...Many, many kids were killed. In 1969, 369 kids (students) were killed in police firing, BJP does not want to talk about it," Kavitha said.