AIMIM president writes to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said that the party has requested the Centre and State government to rechristen Hyderabad Liberation Day to “National Integration Day”.
Mr Owaisi was speaking to the media at party headquarters in Darussalaam where he said that letters to Home Minister Amit (HM) Shah and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao were sent, requesting this change.
Reading from the letters, Mr Owaisi said, “More importantly, the nationalist movement rightly saw the people of these territories as an integral part of independent India. Therefore the phrase “National Integration Day may be more apposite, rather than mere liberation.”
Mr Owaisi said that with the merger of the Hyderabad State, its residents were recognised as equal citizens of India. He underscored that the “integration of these territories is also a recognition that the people of India had long struggled against (indirect) British rule”. He gave the examples of Maulvi Alauddin and Turrebaz Khan who attacked the British Residency in Hyderabad during the 1857 War of Independence. He also touched upon the Sunderlal Committee report which stated that “mass violence” against Muslims happened at the time of Operation Polo.
The AIMIM chief announced that on September 16 the party would embark on a motorcycle rally in the shape of a Tiranga Yatra for national integration. Mr Owaisi said that princely states, including Hyderabad State and Gwalior, were feudal in nature.
Taking a question about the Razakars, Mr Owaisi said that those who were Razakars left the country, and those who loved the country chose to remain.
4% Muslim quota
Mr Owaisi demanded that the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh constitute a strong legal team to take up the 4% reservation case which is being heard in the apex court. He said that on account of these reservations, backward castes in the Muslim community had made progress, and that they should continue to do so.
