Mild tension prevailed at the Assembly premises when the BJP leaders tried to lay siege to the State Assembly on Friday.
The BJP leaders protested at the Assembly premises demanding that the KCR government celebrate the Telangana Liberation Day on September 17. The BJP leaders alleged that the TRS government was under pressure from its political ally All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMMI) president Asaddudin Owaisi in not celebrating Telangana Liberation Day on September 17.
The BJP leaders and the police deployed inside the Assembly premises entered into heated arguments. The police took into custody several BJP activists at the Assembly premises. BJP state leader and MLC N Ramachandra Rao and several other BJP leaders were kept under house arrest. Rao alleged that he was barred from attending the Legislative Council session. To avert any trouble, all the roads leading to the Assembly were shut down.
Celebrating Telangana Liberation Day on September 17 has been a contentious issue and long-pending demand of the BJP. Since the last 20 years, the BJP has been demanding successive governments’ be it the TDP, Congress and now TRS to celebrate September 17 as the official Telangana Liberation Day. The BJP leaders have been accusing the successive governments of pandering to the Muslim vote-bank in not officially celebrating Telangana Liberation Day.
Razakars, led by Qasim Razvi, had unleashed an armed struggle to unite the princely state of Hyderabad with Pakistan. His attempts were thwarted by the Indian Army who took control of Hyderabad on September 17, 1948.
For more than 20 years, the BJP has been celebrating the Telangana Liberation Day on September 17.
Recently, BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar started a ‘yatra’ from Yadadri-Bhongir district which will conclude in Nizamabad on September 16 to highlight the party’s demand to celebrate Telangana Liberation Day on September 17. In 2019, the state BJP leaders had met Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan urging her to direct the state government to officially celebrate Telangana Liberation Day.
