In his avatar as an agitator and activist for a separate state of Telangana, KCR was very vocal about wanting to commemorate 17th September as an official event of the state government. He wanted the government to call it “Telangana Independence Day”. He thundered and (logically) questioned that if Maharashtra and Karnataka have been commemorating this event as independence days, why should the then AP government also not do it? He thundered – Afterall, the capital of the then Hyderabad state is Hyderabad city; a large portion of the then Hyderabad state (that included current day Telangana, parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra) lies in the Telangana region now.
He thundered – if necessary, I will bring down the (then) Congress government in the state if they don’t commemorate 17th September. The method of delivery of this speech, and the strong tone in the emotion with which KCR delivered his speeches on this topic made everyone believe that he will prioritize this event as soon as he comes to power.
Once KCR came to power in June 2014, everyone in the state waited for September 17th of that year to remember the gory, ghastly and deadly events leading to September 1948. KCR didn’t do anything that year. When questioned about this in 2015, he went bombastic on those who asked him that question. He now thundered – “Someone wants to call this as “liberation day”. Someone wants to call this an “integration day”. Whichever party wants to commemorate it in whichever manner, they can do so in their party offices. June 2nd is when the state of Telangana is formed and we will celebrate that day in a grand manner.”
In September 2019, KCR stood up in the Assembly and thundered once again. “What difference does it make if we commemorate 17th September or don’t? Will the country drown if we don’t commemorate?” He went on to repeat his 2015 statement on different people wanting to call this differently. And then he went on to explain that while he didn’t forget his original demand, it was only after he came to power in the year 2014 that he was made aware of the various circumstances and incidents during that period. KCR told us that the 2–4-year period after September 1948 was also a very dark period for Telangana, and therefore he decided that there is no point in raking up old happenings because everything is fine now. Yet again, the method of his delivery of this speech, and the soothing tone with which KCR delivered this speech made everyone believe that this topic has now been laid to rest by him.
On September 3rd, 2022 the Government of India announced that it will be officially commemorating September 17th as Hyderabad Liberation Day. The Chief Ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana were also sent invites for the program. A few hours after this announcement came, the Telangana government announced that it will be commemorating 17th September as “National Integration Day” because it was the day on which the Telangana society entered into a democracy from an autocracy. From demanding a commemoration to dissing those who reminded him about to actually deciding to commemorate it – the circle was now completed by KCR!
While folks were trying to make sense of the latest U-turn by KCR, came a tweet from AIMIM President, Akbaruddin Owaisi, that cleared the confusion once and for all.
Basically, Owaisi had to give his permission to the Telangana government to commemorate this day. And then he also boasted that it took the government only 1 hour to accept his “recommendation”. This very clearly demonstrates the hold the Owaisi family has on the government. All these years, it looks like KCR only waited for this permission from the MIM to fulfil his own demand! This was the same allegation that the BJP had been making for nearly 25 years – that the previous governments were not commemorating this day out of fear of what the MIM will think. The MIM’s nod is necessary for even any development work to happen in the Old City of Hyderabad. The Owaisi brothers have themselves confirmed on multiple occasions that it doesn’t matter which party the CM belongs to; they all will have to toe the line of MIM only. Sr. Owaisi even claimed the steering of the car (referring to TRS’s symbol) is in MIM’s hand.
It will be pertinent to ask why MIM’s permission is needed to commemorate this event. Because the murderous Razakar “army” was nothing but a militant wing of the MIM party. There are 100s of untold stories of the murderous atrocities committed by the MIM-Razakar combination. After the Indian Army successfully completed Operation Polo, which liberated Hyderabad state from the tyranny of the Nizam, their leader Qasim Rizvi was arrested in 1948. He was released in 1956. Before migrating to Pakistan upon his release, he handed over the reins of MIM to Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The current President of the AIMIM, Asaduddin Owaisi, is the grandson of Abdul Wahed Owaisi. The other grandson, Akbaruddin Owaisi has embodied well the original DNA of MIM (and is famous for his remarks that “If they are given 15 minutes, they will wipe out the 100 crore Hindus of the country”.)
It is now quite obvious why MIM does not want us to remember the events that led to September 1948. It is also quite obvious from Owaisi’s letter to the Government of India that he wants to focus only on the Sunderlal Committee report that focused on the situation in Hyderabad after the liberation was done. This selective reading and propagating of history are what the people have been continuously objecting to, for many years. With such a murderous history, how is it that the MIM party gets to decide what we the people should know and what we should not?
Why did KCR, who thundered when out of power, have to wait for permission from MIM to commemorate the “journey from autocracy to democracy”? Why did it take an initiative from the Government of India for MIM to give permission to the Telangana government? These are important questions that will need to be discussed when talking about the importance of 17th September. India’s Home Minister hoisted the flag on September 17th, 1948. It took 74 years after that for India’s Home Minister to do the same. It is high time indeed that we know more about our history.
