Congress Lok Sabha member N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has accused the BJP, the TRS and the AIMIM of distorting history to extract political mileage from the merger of erstwhile Hyderabad State into Indian Union in 1948.
Participating in Hyderabad Merger Day celebrations at Huzurnagar on Saturday, Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that it was the Congress party which spearheaded the movement against Nizam’s rule and fought against the atrocities of Razakars. “Several Congress leaders, Communists and people belonging to all communities sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Hyderabad and its merger with the Indian Union. Today, BJP, TRS and MIM are distorting history for political gains. They are presenting a fictionalised version of history to call Hyderabad’s merger with Indian Union as liberation,” he said.
The Congress MP said that the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and his deputy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel conducted ‘Operation Polo’ when the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan refused to merge Hyderabad State with the Indian Union. Several Congress leaders, including P.V. Narasimha Rao, who later became the Prime Minister of India and Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, who became the first elected Chief Minister of erstwhile Hyderabad State, fought against Nizam’s rule. He also reminded that Narasimha Rao, after he became Prime Minister in 1991, gave recognition to hundreds of freedom fighters at the national level for their role in the struggle in Hyderabad’s freedom movement.
