Telangana Liberation Day Row: BJP Accuses Congress of Downplaying History
The BJP's Rajya Sabha member K. Laxman on Friday accused the Congress government in Telangana and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy of downplaying the significance of Telangana Liberation Day and of practising what he called minority appeasement politics. Addressing a press conference at the BJP State office, he said the government was treating the occasion as secondary to its own 'Praja Palana' public outreach programme.
The remarks, made ahead of the anniversary observed each year on September 17, have revived a long-running political dispute over how the State should formally mark the day the erstwhile Hyderabad State became part of the Indian Union. The BJP's charges are political in nature, and the State government has not issued a response to them.
What the day marks
Hyderabad State was a princely state ruled by the Nizam, who declined to accede to India after Independence in 1947. In September 1948, the Indian Army moved into the state in an operation officially described as a 'police action', ending the Nizam's rule and bringing the territory into the Indian Union. The date is marked in different ways across the regions that once formed Hyderabad State.
Mr. Laxman said many among the younger generations, including Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha, knew only of Independence Day on August 15 and were unaware of the events that led to the merger of Hyderabad State with the Indian Union on September 17, 1948. He demanded that the history of the Telangana liberation struggle and the writings of the poet Dasarathi Krishnamacharya be made a mandatory part of the school curriculum.
He asked why September 17 is officially observed as Liberation Day in areas of present-day Maharashtra and Karnataka that were once part of Hyderabad State, while Telangana has not adopted a similar official observance. He attributed the difference to the influence of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and accused both the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) of failing to take a decision on the issue because of what he termed vote bank politics.
Mr. Laxman said the BJP had campaigned for official recognition of Telangana Liberation Day for more than three decades, and that party activists had faced arrests and police action during earlier agitations. Senior leaders, including Ch. Vidyasagar Rao and L.K. Advani, had mobilised public support through various programmes, he added.
He noted that the Union government has officially commemorated the occasion at the Parade Grounds in Hyderabad since 2022, and said this year's programme would also be held on a large scale. He said the BJP would include the chapter in the curriculum and officially celebrate the event if it is voted to power in the State.
A contested framing
The observance has long been disputed. Some political parties and community organisations, particularly among Muslim and Dalit groups, have opposed describing September 17 as 'Liberation Day', arguing that the 1948 military action was followed by violence against Muslim communities and that the day should be remembered with attention to that history. Some groups have preferred the term 'National Integration Day'. In recent years, the Telangana government has held official State observances on the date — under the previous BRS government it was designated Telangana National Integration Day — while the BJP has continued to press for the 'Liberation Day' name.
Separately, BJP Telangana president N. Ramchander Rao announced a month-long 'Seva Sankalp Abhiyan' from September 17 to October 17 to mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 25 years in public office, covering his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat and as Prime Minister. The campaign will include blood donation camps, Swachh Bharat activities, essay competitions and outreach programmes for beneficiaries of Central government schemes.
