Was September 17, 1948 a liberation day, a merger day or day of betrayal as some call it? None of these. It has no significance whatsoever and it is a big hoax.
This was the unanimous view of speakers at a seminar on Is the celebration of the fall of Hyderabad State justified? held here on Sunday evening. The seminar organised, under the auspices of All-India Majlise Tamir-e-Millat, saw speakers denouncing attempts by political parties to distort history with a view to deriving political mileage.
No force used
Former BSP leader Dr. Chiranjeevi Kolluri said by no stretch of imagination September 17 could be celebrated as liberation day since no force was used to annex the Hyderabad State.
Moreover, Nizam was not a foreigner but very much an Indian and therefore the question of liberation did not arise. “People of Telangana were free citizens unlike Seemandhra people who suffered under the British yoke”, he remarked.
He wanted the Government of India to apologise for the ‘massacre’ of Muslims in the name of ‘Police Action’ the way it did for the pogrom of Sikhs after the assassination of former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
Sangisetti Srinivas, historian, demanded the government to make public the Pt Sunderlal Committee report which clearly stated that at least 27,000 to 40,000 people lost their lives in the ‘police action’.
Many Muslims also died, but the Communist claim they alone were killed. “It shouldn’t be called ‘police action’, but military action,” Mr. Srinivas said.
Mazharul Haq Adil said there were 565 princely states in India and Hyderabad State was best of them. If Hyderabad had been liberated with force then the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, wouldn’t have been made a Raj Permukh, he said.
Ziauddin Nayyar, convenor of the seminar, welcomed the gathering. Dr. Dawood Ashraf, historian, and Abdur Raheem Qureshi of Tameere Millat, also spoke.
