Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (‘KCR’) speaking at a function of the Telangana government on Saturday.
Hyderabad:
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (‘KCR’) today accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of “doing divisive politics”, a rally-versus-rally fight to mark the annexation of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad by India in 1948. I fought the BJP. He said this while raising the demand of the BJP-led central government to approve 10 per cent reservation for tribal people in Telangana and virtually setting a time limit.
“The bill (proposed law for 10 per cent tribal quota) is pending with the Centre. I am asking Amit Shah, who is doing divisive politics here. I am asking PM Narendra Modi, whose birthday is today, with folded hands, Please approve that bill to please,” he said at a public function organized by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government. “Even the President of India is an Adivasi (Adivasi) woman. She will not stop this move.”
He then announced that his government would issue an order for the quota next week. “Will Narendra Modi accept it, or will he make it a noose around his neck?” They said.
KCR’s focus on the demands of the tribal community – another question for the BJP government – is his latest move as he tries to mobilize opposition forces at the national level to unite in 2024.
He himself spoke of the possibilities of being national: “People from Maharashtra came to me today and asked me to start a national party.”
Today was another day of centre-state clash as both the governments celebrated merger day in separate events. While the BJP-led Center is calling it “the day of liberation from the brutal Nizam”, the KCR government is celebrating it as ‘Telangana National Unity Day’.
At a central government event earlier in the day – which also included Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde – Amit Shah took a dig at “those people” for celebrating the day “because of vote bank politics”. He said he was “afraid” of the Razakars, a reference to the private militias who defended the then Muslim Nizam’s rule in the largely Hindu-majority state.
When India got independence, the Nizam decided to keep Hyderabad state as an independent state, which spread over present day Telangana and parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra. But, on September 17, 1948, it was incorporated into the Union of India in a police action, popularly known as Operation Polo. The credit was mainly given to the then Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, who hoisted the national flag in Hyderabad that year.