Telangana Liberation Day: BJP demands to celebrate September 17 as Telangana Liberation Day- Why is the day important?

Telangana Liberation Day: National Vice-President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) DK Aruna on September 16, 2021 demanded that September 17 be officially celebrated as Telangana Liberation Day. 

There is a call to observe Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 by several parties, as it was on this day that the state got its liberation in 1948. The ruling TRS government has not though formally announced anything regarding the same. 

What is Telangana Liberation Day?

•Though India got its independence on August 15, 1947, Hyderabad state had to wait to get out of the clutches of Nizams and Razakars who were ruling the state. 

•During the Partition of India in 1947, the princely states of India, were given the option of choosing full independence or merging with either India or Pakistan.

•By 1948, almost all princely states had acceded to either India or Pakistan but one of the major exceptions was one of the most powerful principality of Hyderabad.

•The seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Sir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII, who had a pact with the British, had been ruling Hyderabad independently and he had an option to either join India, Pakistan or stay independent. 

•The Nizam presided over a largely Hindu population, who were in favour of merging with India but he did not agree to the same and had chosen independence and hoped to maintain this with an irregular army recruited from the Muslim aristocracy, known as the Razakars.

Operation Polo

Fearing the rise of militant Razakars and formation of a Communist state in Hyderabad, the Indian Army launched the siege of the State of Hyderabad under Operation Polo on September 13, 1948.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the Home Minister then and the Nizam subsequently signed an instrument of accession, joining India.

The princely state of Hyderabad was the last to join the Indian union on September 17, 1948. 

Let's remember "Hyderabad Liberation Day",On this day in 1948,Sardar Patel initiated #OperationPolo to merge Nizam's Hyderabad state with Indian Union

To mark this historic day Hon'ble HM Shri @AmitShah Ji will grace the occasion with his address at a meeting in Nirmal,Telangana pic.twitter.com/0MlW3P65JA

— D K Aruna (@aruna_dk) September 16, 2021

Background

The demand to formally commemorate Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 has been out there since 2014.