BJP's blatant attempt to steal credit for September 17 ridiculous

The attempts of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to celebrate a "Liberation Day" and to legitimize it by bringing the Union Home Minister and the State Governor is delirious. As Telangana's history tells us, they had no role and this is purely a vain attempt to gain political mileage, with the elections to the State Assembly approaching fast. History is being distorted as we speak .

The Bharatiya Janata Party was formed in 1980's. Its origins lie in the erstwhile Jan Sangh which was the political arm of RSS and the Janata Party which existed briefly in the 1970s. The party had no significant role in either the Indian Independence Struggle or the Telangana Armed Rebellion, per se. Both were mass movements involving peasant uprisings, civil disobedience, non-violent and sometimes violent protests.

While the Indian National Congress which spearheaded the Independence movement had leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, Netaji Subash Chandra Bose and countless others, the Telangana Armed Rebellion was led by Communists like Ravi Narayana Reddy, Baddam Yellareddy, Bhimreddy Narsimha Reddy, Ch. Rajeshwar Rao, Maqdoom Mohiuddin and many more.

Lacking credible participation in such people's movements, the BJP and Sangh Parivar constantly try to distort history and appropriate itself by trying to own up leaders such as Sardar Patel, a Gandhian and Congressman, Bhagat Singh, a revolutionary socialist etc. Patel in fact had banned the RSS, the parent body of the BJP. When M.S. Golwalkar, head of the organization, appealed for revocation of the ban, Patel stipulated that the RSS should draft a written constitution that strictly adhered to the Constitution of India: Patel made it clear on that day that the RSS constitution should be framed with "Constitutional loyalty, adoption of the national flag, definition of the powers of the Sangh head, democratization of the Sangh with internal elections, parental consent to admit children as members of the Sangh, provisions against violence and secret activities."

Coming to Telangana, its modern history is replete with revolutions and fights for people's rights. The Armed Rebellion of 1946-51, 1952 Mulki Agitation, Student-led Statehood Agitation of 1969, or Telangana Movement in the 2000s which was a non-violent civil disobedience movement akin to Gandhian freedom struggle, leading up to the re-formation of Telangana State in 2014.

In their continued effort to communalise and misappropriate history, the BJP portrays the fight of the peasants of Telangana as a fight solely against the Nizam and the Razakar militia. They conveniently choose to ignore and omit the fact that the Razakars were a paramilitary force under Qasim Razvi, a fanatical Muslim supremacist, and protected the Hindu doras and Deshmukhs from Communist-led insurrections. The razakars even enjoyed their hospitality in Dora Gadis.

The armed rebellion was in its true nature, a fight between peasants and their persecutors.

The Telangana armed struggle was not a Hindu-Muslim clash. It was a class struggle of peasants belonging to all castes and religions against the Nizam, Razakar Army, and Doras/Deshmukhs.

Pensions to the heroes of the armed rebellion:

The Hyderabad Special Screening Committee (HSSC) was set up to identify the individuals - or their widows - who deserved to be compensated for battling the autocracy of the last Nizam of Hyderabad as part of the larger national movement.

In 1998, the HSSC submitted its final report. Chennameneni Rajeshwara Rao, the HSSC's chairman - once a freedom fighter and then a CPI MLA - was genuinely solemn in his recommendation which said: "Nothing gives me greater satisfaction in the evening of my life than being of some service to the widows of martyrs and to those who fought valiantly for freedom."

However, ironically, his half-brother Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, then MP and state BJP president in Telangana, had virtually termed the HSSC's findings bogus. "Perhaps it wants us to believe that even infants fought the battle against the Nizam."

Any argument, on any platform is based on facts and premises that cannot be altered or twisted. These facts could be numbers, dates in history or recorded incidents. History of nations and roles of organizations and individuals in these events that are supposed to be facts are now being given perspectives.

Your facts now vary from mine. It is our duty to learn, to imbibe, to educate and be inspired by history. After all, you know, facts are indeed sacred. Comment, of course, is your choice.