BUT NO CHANGE IN BJPS STAND - TRS to observe T Merger Day today

Hyderabad: In a marked departure from the last few years,the TRS and the Telangana JAC will observe Telangana Merger Day on Friday,instead of Telangana Liberation Day,while the BJP said it would continue to call it a T liberation day.In fact,for many years,September 17 had passed off unnoticed in the state until the agitation for separate Telangana was relaunched by TRS in 2001.Since then,the TRS has been observing the day as T Liberation Day,but has decided to observe it as martyrs day henceforth in order not to hurt the Muslim community who it feels perceive the definition of liberation as anti-Nizam.

However,except for the change in the definition,the TRS will continue to do the same things on that day as before.Telangana JAC convener M Kodandaram said the JAC including the TRS will hoist the tricolour and the Telangana flag in Hyderabad and all the districts and observe two-minute silence in memory of the T martyrs.The only addition this time would be that the JAC members will meet with the families of those students and youth who allegedly committed suicide for the separate state cause since the T movement intensified and offer some financial help to them,Kodandaram said.

However,the proposal of TRS to celebrate the martyrs day has been opposed by the BJP and the Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen.While the BJP objected the JAC for observing September 17 as Telangana Merger Day instead of T liberation day and said that it would not join TRS in the celebrations,the MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi warned the state government about the celebrations.Its the governments responsibility to protect the lives of the Muslims with T liberation day coinciding with likely verdict on Ayodhya issue on Friday, he said.Meanwhile,OU JAC has decided to go ahead with T Liberation day celebrations on campus despite police denying them permission.
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(source-toi)