Centre’s Liberation Day celebration turns into token event

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was the chief guest at the event at Secunderabad Parade Grounds, as a customary practice paid homage at the War Memorial and reviewed the guard of honour

Hyderabad: The Telangana Liberation Day celebration by the Centre turned out to be a token event on Sunday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was the chief guest at the event at Secunderabad Parade Grounds, as a customary practice paid homage at the War Memorial and reviewed the guard of honour. He spoke for just over 12 minutes and that too about the failure of successive governments in celebrating the event officially. He used the occasion to claim success of the G20 summit, Chandrayaan-3 and to praise Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There was no mention of how his government at the Centre would support Telangana in taking up development works or about sanctioning new projects in the future.

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Though this is the 75th anniversary of Hyderabad’s annexation into the Indian Union, the Centre has not sanctioned funds to commentate the event. In fact, the event was more of a BJP event than a government programme with a majority of the audience being party leaders and functionaries donning saffron scarves.

” The party has lost a golden opportunity to present itself as the saviour of people of Telangana. The party leadership should have announced some project or scheme for the people of Telangana. The event would have helped the party in getting political mileage,” a city BJP leader said.