‘Salaam, Nizam’, says KCR once more    

HYDERABAD: Much to the chagrin of BJP leaders and members, who are critical of the Nizam’s rule in the erstwhile princely State of Hyderabad, of which Telangana was a part, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has, for one more time, sung paeans to the Nizam-ul-Mulk, popularly known as  Nizam, who was the monarch of the then Hyderabad State.

Expressing admiration for the way Nizam ruled the Hyderabad State, Rao, who appears to be making efforts to consolidate his party’s position among the minorities, lavished praise on the monarch, against whose oppressive regime the Telangana peasants had waged  Armed Struggle in 1948, which eventually led to the integration of Hyderabad State into the Indian Union.

While taking part in a debate on the issue of purification of land records in the State Assembly here on Tuesday, the chief minister said that not many people knew about the positive side of Nizam “under whose regime land survey was conducted in the then Hyderabad State during 1930-34.” Disputing historians’ claim that Nizam was a tyrant, Rao recalled that Nizam had set up an independent judiciary. His family was paid a compensation of Rs 70,000 in 1940 as per the verdict of the then High Court for the land acquired by the State for construction of an irrigation project. 

The chief minister alleged that Andhra rulers in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had projected Nizam in poor light by concealing his greatness in the archives. “But we have our own view of Nizam’s rule.” Rao said the Nizam had distributed one lakh acres of land among tribal farmers after an enquiry was conducted by an independent commission into the uprising by Komaram Bheem in Adilabad.