The Central government has announced its decision to celebrate September 17, the day on which the princely State of Hyderabad merged into the Indian Union in 1948, as ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’.
The Union Home Ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on Tuesday. The notification said Hyderabad did not get independence for 13 months since India’s Independence on August 15, 1947 and was under Nizam’s rule. “The region got liberated from Nizam’s rule on September 17, 1948 after police action namely Operation Polo,” the notification said.
There was demand from the people of the region that September 17 be celebrated as Hyderabad Liberation Day. “In order to remember the martyrs who liberated Hyderabad and to infuse the flame of patriotism in the minds of the youth, the Government of India has decided to celebrate September 17 every year as Hyderabad Liberation Day”.
The Central government’s notification comes amid the controversy surrounding the issue with the Congress, the BJP, the BRS and the AIMIM giving their own interpretation for the historic event. The BJP wanted the day to be celebrated as Liberation Day claiming that the region was liberated from the “clutches of Nizam” while the BRS and MIM preferred to call it Integration Day as the princely State merged with the Indian Union. The parties have organised separate celebrations on September 17 last year propagating their views on the issue ahead of the Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Ravi Narayana Reddy Seva Samstha thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deciding to officially celebrate the Hyderabad Liberation Day. The organisation recalled the struggle of Mr. Ravi Narayana Reddy who took to guerilla warfare against the Nizam rule and said he was instrumental in the last Nizam’s surrender to the government after the Operation Polo.
