A round-table meeting titled ‘What happened on 17 September?’ here on Wednesday saw concerned citizens, historians and social activists questioning political forces that demanded September 17 to be named ‘Liberation Day’.
Organised on the banner of the 1969 Telangana Movement Founders Forum and the Hyderabad Deccan Democratic Alliance, it had speakers slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying it was all set to create communal tension by calling it Liberation Day and trying to distort history. They added it was unfortunate that Telugu Desam, Communist Party of India, CPI and CPI-M also joined hands with the BJP on this.
Those who spoke included social activists Dr. Chiranjeevi Kolluri, Capt. L. Panduranga Reddy, Adil Mohammed, Mohd. Safiullah, Honorary Managing Trustee of the Deccan Heritage Trust and Ziauddin Nayyar.
They chorused that enough was enough and that the perpetrators of the ‘Liberation Day’ theory should stop stoking the fire any longer. “What was the use when thousands had already died in the Telangana Armed Struggle?” they said. Capt. Reddy, Adil Mohammed and Mohd. Safiullah were the most vociferous and said anybody who was interested could have a look at the proof that was available, with an open mind.
Four demands thrown up at the round-table were Centre to take the initiative and stop the official 17 September government programme in Maharashtra and Karnataka, removal of the historical distortion in school books of Marathwada, declaration of the birth anniversaries of the VI and VII Nizam as holidays in Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka and for the Centre to make public the Pandit Sundarlal Report that said over 27,000 people had lost their lives in the ‘police action’.
