Summary:
Hyderabad, Aug 31 (PTI) BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday demanded that the TRS government in Telangana officially celebrate the "Hyderabad Liberation Day" on September 17, even as he slammed the state government over alleged unemployment and family rule.Patra, who participated in the ongoing "padayatra" of state BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, recalled the stellar role played by the country"s first Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the merger of erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad with the Indian Union.The way Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that August 14 would be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, every resident of Hyderabad and Telangana should remember September 17 as "Liberation Day", he said, addressing a gathering.The erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad was merged with Indian Union on September 17, 1948.Patra "challenged" the TRS government to celebrate the "Liberation Day" on September 17."I challenge the Chief Minister (K Chandrasekhar Rao).
Chief Minister ji, you had promised that you will come to power, Telangana state will be formed and you will celebrate Liberation Day...Who is he, out of fear for whom, you don"t celebrate Liberation Day? I challenge.
September 17 is approaching.
You celebrate Liberation Day.
Otherwise, Bandi Sanjay ji and BJP will celebrate the Liberation Day.
Because, we are nationalists...," he said.Recalling the reported challenge given few years ago by AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi, taking the name of Modi, to organise campaign at Charminar in the old city of Hyderabad, a stronghold of AIMIM, he said Bandi Sanjay Kumar demolished the challenge by launching his "padayatra" from the Bhagya Lakshmi temple at Charminar on August 28.Patra claimed a youth from Telangana, who travelled with him in the flight from Delhi to Hyderabad on Tuesday, told him that there is "land mafia, sand mafia and liquor mafia" in the state.The youth also told him that the family members of the CM -- son, daughter, son-in-law -- are politically employed, but there is unemployment among common people, Patra further claimed.A woman, who was also a co-passenger in the flight, told him that Rao never comes to Secretariat but stays in his farm house, he alleged.