Thanks to Patel, Hyderabad liberated without bloodshed, says Shah

HYDERABAD: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first deputy prime minister of independent India, bypassed the highest authority of the country, breached the strongest ideological barrier and took the decision to design the Police Action on September 10, 1948, which he, along with the then Agent-General (Ambassador) to the erstwhile State of Hyderabad KM Munshi, had implemented till the Nizam surrendered on September 17. Addressing the gathering after hoisting the national flag during the Telangana Liberation Day celebrations at Parade Ground on Sunday, he said that if not for their joint efforts, the Hyderabad State wouldn’t have been liberated so soon, and that too without a drop of blood being shed in the Police Action.“Sardar Patel had said that an enslaved Hyderabad was like a stomach cancer for India, and there could be no other way out except police action,” he remarked. “The people were enduring atrocities worse than hell under the Nizam’s rule. The farmers in Bidar waged a movement and the participation of the youth along with Patel’s decisive actions made the liberation of Hyderabad State possible,” he said. Shah expressed disappointment in political parties engaging in ‘vote-bank politics’ while avoiding the celebration of September 17 as Telangana Liberation Day. “People will turn look away from parties which are turning their backs on the country’s history,” he remarked