Congress never remembered Hyderabad liberation fighters: Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah hit out at the Congress on Sunday, alleging that it never remembered those who fought and sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Hyderabad from the “brutal” Nizam rule.

Shah attended several programmes in poll-bound Karnataka on Sunday, starting with hoisting a 103 ft high national flag and inaugurating the ‘Gorata Shaheed Smarak’ and memorial of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at Gorata ground in Bidar district.

Recalling the horror of Gorata on May 9, 1948, the Union minister said that 200 people were massacred by the ‘brutal” Nizam even though the country had become independent. Hoisting the flag at Gorata, Shah called it the “Jallianwala Bagh of South India”.

“More than 200 people were massacred here in Gorata by the brutal Nizam, but due to its appeasement policy, the Congress never remembered those who fought and sacrificed their lives for Hyderabad liberation only for its greed for vote bank,” he said.

Addressing the public gathering, Shah also slammed the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Telangana government for “hesitating” to celebrate the Hyderabad Liberation Day.

Speaking on the upcoming assembly elections, Shah appealed to the people to help Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to return to power in Karnataka “so that it can build a grand martyrs’ memorial at Gorata for ₹50 crore”, which will attract tourists not only from Karnataka but also from across the country.

“Once the BJP government returns to power in Karnataka, and the grand memorial is built, the party will celebrate the next Hyderabad Liberation Day at Gorata,” Shah said.

Noting that the BJP never believed in ‘appeasement’, Shah said that the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government renamed the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region as Kalyana Karnataka in 2019.

“Because Hyderabad Nizam ruled the region, it was called the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. It is the Congress which allowed the symbols of India’s slavery to continue here, but Yediyurappa renamed it as Kalyana Karnataka,” Shah said.

He added that the Yediyurappa government had also given ₹3,000 crore for the Kalyana Karnataka region, while chief minister Basavaraj Bommai allocated ₹5,000 crore in 2023-24 budget.

NEED A CONG RESPONSE

The Kalyana Karnataka has 41 assembly seats, among which BJP controls 19 and aims for 30 seats. There are seven districts in the region, comprising Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Ballari and Vijayanagara. The BJP won all five Lok Sabha constituencies in Kalyana Karnataka during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The voters in the Kalyana Karnataka region are said to be unhappy due to the lack of development in the area, whom the BJP is trying to appease with the ‘Vikas’ thrust, people close to developments said.

In January, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to woo voters, especially from the Backward Classes in the region, by laying the foundation stone and inaugurating various developmental projects for irrigation, drinking water, and a national highway.

The assembly elections in the state are due by May.