HYDERABAD: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday accused the BJP and RSS of trying to to rewrite history by twisting facts and erasing the truth. He revealed that the CPM had observed the merger of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union as ‘surrender day’.
Addressing a press conference here, Yechury reminded that the Nizam who ruled Hyderabad State surrendered to the Indian Union within four days of the launch of ‘Operation Polo’, also known as Police Action.
“What led Nizam - who was the richest man in the world - to surrender in a matter of four days? It is because of the armed struggle waged against his government. The Armed Struggle that started in 1946 had weakened the Nizam so much that he had no option left but to surrender to the Indian Union,” the veteran Communist leader said. He said that the BJP was trying to rewrite this part of history.
Patel had banned RSS
Slamming the saffron party, Yechury said that the same Sardar Patel, whom BJP was trying to appropriate as its icon, had banned the RSS after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. “The ban on the RSS was in force from February 1948 to July 1949. The BJP government is suppressing the fact that the communists would have come to power post the Nizam era; this was revealed in a classified CIA document,” he said. Yechury said that post the merger of Hyderabad into the Indian Union, as many as 4,482 political prisoners belonging to communist parties languished in jails till March 27, 1950, against 57 Razakars.
India first
Responding to a question by TNIE on how he would justify extending support to the TRS in the Munugode byelection after dubbing Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao a “feudal lord and dictator”, Yechury said, “If you want to save India as a secular democratic, if you want to safeguard the Constitution and the Rights guaranteed under it, if you want to ensure that official agencies are not misused by the ruling party, you have to keep BJP away from wielding political power.”
Asked how he thinks the BJP and TRS are different, Yechury said, “Journalists are in jail even now for telling the truth. Even after the Supreme Court gave bail, new charges have been slapped and fresh arrests made. That is not my India. Wh-oever says whatever they may say, I first want to end this.”