MBT condemns BJP stand on ‘Liberation Day’

Hyderabad, Sept 12 (INN): The Majlis Bachao Tahreek (MBT) has strongly condemned the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) for its attempts to incite communal feelings in the name of ‘Liberation Day celebrations’.

“Who was liberated and from whom..?” asked MBT Spokesperson Amjed Ullah Khan in a media statement on Monday. He advised the BJP leaders to first study the real history of Hyderabad before coming up with baseless theories and contentions. “Hyderabad-Deccan was ruled by Qutub Shahis, Moghals and then Asaf Jahi kings and not a single ruler was outsider. All of them were born and brought up in India. Hyderabad was among hundreds of other princely States which were independent till August 1947. This was the last State to merge with the Indian Union. When Hyderabad was already a part of India since centuries, then who got liberated on September 17, 1948,” he said.

Amjed Ullah Khan said BJP leaders should also admit of massacre of Muslims from 14th to 17th September, 1948. While the entire Muslim community was projected in a bad light in the name of fictitious “Razakars”, the communal and RSS-minded historians never wrote a single line on atrocities committed on Muslims during “Police Action”. Pandit Sundar Lal Committee, which visited the Marathwada, Bidar and Gulbarga during November-December 1948, not only confirmed the massacre but gave a detailed account of how Muslims were looted, raped and butchered. No government, either at the Centre or State, have ever expressed regret or apologised for the massacre, he said.

Khan said “Muslim families, who lived in border districts of Hyderabad State, have lost their relatives, properties and honour in the “Police Action”. They migrated to Hyderabad and lived in refugee camps. Those employed with Nizam Government were removed from services for no reasons. According to a survey done in 1962, almost 28 per cent of Muslim rickshaw-pullers in Hyderabad were former employees of the Nizam government and 10 per cent were skilled workers who had lost their jobs during the 1950s,” Amjed Ullah Khan said while demanding that the BJP leaders should also accept these realities when they talk about “Liberation Day”.

“Hyderabad was always a part of India, irrespective of Qutub Shahi, Moghal or Asaf Jahi Rule. Therefore, like rest of India, our Independence Day falls on 15th of August. Due to their communal mindset, BJP might celebrate the end of rule by a Muslim king. But as Indians, we will go along with rest of the country and therefore, we cannot agree on having two “Independence Days” for one country,” he said.

Amjed Ullah Khan further said that the “Hyderabad Liberation Struggle” was nothing but a myth created by self-proclaimed “freedom fighters”. There might be a few genuine freedom fighters who really fought against the Nizam’s rule, but the rest were criminals who took advantage of arrival of Indian Army and killed Muslims men, women and children. Even Sardar Patel refused to accept a majority of them as genuine freedom fighters. Almost after 25 years, in 1985, the then chief minister P V Narasimha Rao, convinced Prime Minister Smt Indira Gandhi to acknowledge those killers as freedom fighters. Almost 11,000 ‘Freedom Fighters’ were recognised at different times. The UPA-I Government again refreshed the wounds in 2005. On 13 January 2005, the central government announced pension for more than 4,500 ‘freedom fighters’ of the so-called “Hyderabad Liberation Struggle”. (INN)