: Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Sunday demanded that the Telangana government officially celebrate September 17 as Hyderabad "Liberation Day", a long standing demand of the state BJP.
The day marks the merger of the erstwhile Hyderabad state with the Indian Union in 1948.
The state BJP has been celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day on September 17 every year and unfurling the national flag across the state.
"For the past several years,the Maharashtra and Karnataka governments have been officially celebrating Liberation Day in some of the districts of both states" (parts of which were also under the rule of the Nizams), Reddy told reporters here.
"In Telangana, the BJP has been demanding that the Liberation Day be officially celebrated on September 17.
...but the previous governments (in united Andhra Pradesh) and now the TRS government, out of fear of AIMIM, did have not officially celebrating Hyderabad Liberation Day," he alleged.
Reddy said Liberation Day would be celebrated in every village of the state" once the BJP government comes to power in Telangana."
To another query on reports that India was headed for an economic slowdown, Reddy said that if one were to compare the economy with that of nations like the U.S., China and Russia, it was 'very good."