HYDERABAD: Union home minister Amit Shah will address a public meeting at Nirmal town in Telangana on Friday which is being organised by state BJP on the occasion of 'Telangana Liberation Day'.
The meeting is being held to commemorate the sacrifices of freedom fighters who fought against the Nizam and Razakars, BJP said. Though the country got independence on August 15, 1947, the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad (under Nizam rule) was merged with the Indian Union on September 17, 1948.
The BJP has been demanding for several years now that the day be celebrated officially as "Telangana Liberation Day". The meeting, to be attended by Shah, is expected to raise the pitch vis-a-vis BJP's demand for official celebration of the day.
State BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Thursday alleged that the ruling TRS has changed its stance on the issue after coming to power. Telangana BJP general secretary G Premender Reddy, who issued a statement on September 7 about the meeting to be attended by Amit Shah as chief guest, said that during the separate Telangana agitation, TRS president and incumbent chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had demanded official celebration of September 17.
It is double standards on the part of Rao to go back on his stance after coming to power, he had alleged. Significantly, Nirmal town was witness to the martyrdom of a thousand people fighting the British and the Nizam, BJP said.
