Hyderabad: In a surprising note, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday, September 16, praised the Nizams of Hyderabad in the state Assembly. 

His words came on the eve of Operation Polo, the military action through which the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad was annexed to India on September 17, 1948, after independence.

Talking about the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Revanth Reddy said, “The Nizam was so good that he was one of the best among rulers. If you leave the last 10-12 years of the Razakars, in 200+ years they have done very good work. Nizams were one of the best rulers period. 

They were good for most of their time, except the end when the Razakars came and spoiled it. 60% of the revenue collected was used to build public infrastructure like man made lakes, the Nizam Sugar factory, the Assembly building which heard peoples problems,” he said.

The Telangana CM also reminded that other major buildings like the Osmania University, Osmania Hospital and the High Court were also built by the Nizams, stating that the erstwhile rulers of Hyderabad “were benevolent enough” to develop the state by spending the majority of it on the people.

It is interesting to note the incumbent CM’s praise of the Nizams, given that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) more or less never did the same when it was in power for most parts. 

BRS supremo and ex-CM K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) had in the past praised the Osman Ali Khan for the developmental projects via which be built during his reign (1911-48).

However KCR, especially after the formation of Telangana, eventually stopped praising the Nizam of Hyderabad understandably due to not allow the BJP from using it against him. 

It may be noted under pressure from the BJP-led Centre, and the state BJP unit, which has been rebranding the annexation as ‘Liberation Day’, the previous government observed September 17 as National Integration Day in the last few years of it being in power.

While Revanth Reddy did praise the Nizams of Hyderabad, his remark on the Razakars was however factually incorrect. 

The Razakar was a paramilitary organisation led by the notorious Qasim Razvi, who was the president from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) from 1946-48 during the most politically turbulent period in the Hyderabad state’s history. 

Under Razvi the organisation targeted anyone who did not support the state being independent after the British left in 1947.

The Razakar atrocities also include the targetting of Hindus in the state, something that many families to this day remember. However, it may be noted that the organisation came into existence only after Razvi took over the MIM, and did not exist before that. The MIM has formed in 1927, originally as a social organisation It may be noted that 10 years before the annexation of Hyderabad, there were hardly any political organisations around.

Osman Ali Khan’s government had banned both the Congress and Communist Party of India (CPI), while the BJP at that point did not exist.