Vice-President of India C.P. Radhakrishnan will hoist the National Flag at Secunderabad Parade Grounds on Thursday, 17 September, as the chief guest at this year's Hyderabad Liberation Day celebrations — marking the 78th anniversary of Hyderabad's annexation into the Indian Union. This is the fifth consecutive year the Centre is officially organising the event.

Key Dignitaries and Programme Details

Telangana Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla and Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, G. Kishan Reddy, and Bandi Sanjay Kumar will attend the Secunderabad function, which will also feature a parade reviewed by Radhakrishnan and cultural programmes by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

Meanwhile, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy will unfurl the National Flag at the state government's parallel event at the Public Garden in Hyderabad. For the third consecutive year, the Telangana government is observing the day as 'Telangana Praja Palana Dinotsavam' — or People's Governance Day. State ministers, government advisors, and key officials will hoist the flag at all 32 district headquarters, as well as at government offices, urban local bodies, and gram panchayats across the state.

The History Behind September 17

It was on 17 September 1948 that the then Hyderabad State, which had remained under Nizam's rule for 13 months after India's Independence on 15 August 1947, was brought into the Indian Union through a military operation formally known as Operation Polo — popularly referred to as the 'Police Action'. The Centre formalised the commemoration through a gazette notification in 2024, officially designating 17 September as Hyderabad Liberation Day.

Prior to the current government's formal declaration, the Union Ministry of Culture had begun organising the celebrations in Hyderabad from 2022. Home Minister Amit Shah had unfurled the national flag in 2022 and 2023, Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy led the event in 2024, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was the chief guest in 2025.

The Political Fault Lines

The occasion has long been a flashpoint in Telangana politics. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) championed official celebrations for years, organising protests when successive state governments declined to mark the day. Those governments held back primarily due to objections from Muslim organisations, which claim that large-scale violence occurred during the Police Action.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, has consistently opposed the celebrations, arguing that India has one Independence Day and that the framing gives the event a communal character. The then Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had in 2023 rebranded the occasion as 'National Integration Day' to sidestep the controversy, with AIMIM adopting the same nomenclature.

The current Congress-led state government, which came to power in December 2023, chose a third framing — 'Praja Palana Dinotsavam' — celebrating the anniversary as the moment democracy arrived in Hyderabad. Last year, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy invited Union Ministers including Shah and Kishan Reddy to attend this state celebration, but BJP leaders declined. Kishan Reddy wrote that he 'cannot be part of an insincere ritual that blatantly attempts to erase the truth from the people.'

What the Dual Events Signal

The parallel celebrations — one led by the Centre's Vice-President, the other by the state's Chief Minister — reflect an unresolved political contest over how to narrate a pivotal moment in post-independence India. With the BJP at the Centre and Congress in Telangana holding sharply different positions on the event's name and meaning, 17 September is set to remain a site of symbolic contestation for the foreseeable future.