Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, September 17, claimed that the Hyderabad Police Action was designed and implemented by the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhai Patel, without shedding a drop of blood.
The Union Home Minister made the remarks during the Hyderabad “Liberation Day” event, held by the BJP-led Centre to mark the merger of the then princely state of Hyderabad into the Union of India.
Shah, congratulating the people of Telangana on the occasion, spoke of the atrocities of the last Nizam’s Razakar Army against the people.
Shah paid tribute to Sardar Bhai Vallabhai Patel and agent general KM Munshi who led Operation Polo.
“Today marks the completion of 75 years of Telagana’s mukti. I will say it without batting an eyelid, if not for Sardar Patel, Telangana would not have been freed so soon,” claimed Shah.
“It was Sardar Patel who turned down all proposals of a settlement, stood true to the term ‘Nation First and designed Hyderabad Police action. He also implemented it without shedding a drop of blood and forcing the ‘Nizam’s Razakar army’ to surrender,” he added.
He credited the merger of Telangana’s Hyderabad, Karnataka’s Bidar and Maharashtra’s Marathawada into India to the duo.
“After freedom from the British, the state was relieved from the clutches of the Nizam, in 399 days the Nizam. These 399 days were worse than the torture of hell for the people of erstwhile Telangana. Sardar Patel freed the country on the 400th day,” said Shah.
He stated that the efforts of Arya Samaj, Hindu Mahasabah, and the Vande Mataram agitation at the Osmania University followed by protests and songs by Bidar farmers were taken to its end goal by Sardar Patel.
Shah also slammed the former governments for not hosting an event for the remembrance of the freedom fighters and their agitation. “They were afraid amid their appeasement politics to celebrate the event,” he said while thanking PM Modi for the initiative to celebrate this day.
The goal of the event, he said is to “ensure that the new generation remembers the great struggle. Second, to pay tribute to the martyrs, who worked for the Liberation of Hyderabad and third, to reform themselves in carrying forward their martyrs’ dream.”
Shah also used Sardar Patel’s “Independent Hyderabad is like cancer in the belly,” quote on the occasion.
He alleged that despite Telangana’s redemption, due to vote bank politics, the day was not celebrated. “I want to such people that those who turn away from the history of the country, people turn away from them.”
At the event, several contingents of the Army and the CRPF performed representing several forms of services. Groups of artists also paraded to showcase the culture of Hyderabad and other Indian states.
He also inaugurated the Hyderabad Liberation Samsthanam and paid tributes to the martyrs at the War memorial.
The BJP leader also paid special tribute to Shoebullah Khan and Ramji Gond with Postal Tickets released in their names.
Khan, a journalist was murdered seventy-five years ago on the intervening night of August 22-23.
Khan, an editor of an Urdu daily, was entrapped on his way home, and his right palm was chopped off for writing against the Nizam and the Razakas and Majlis Itehadul Muslimeen leader Qasim Razvi. He was then shot thrice at point-blank range.
He also paid tribute to Ramji Gond, from the current Adilabad district, who is believed to have led only tribal rebellion against the British during the First War of Independence in 1857.