Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose- Ode to Valour

• Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu urged youngsters to take inspiration from the life of Subhas Chandra Bose and work for eradicating ill such as poverty, illiteracy social & gender discrimination & corruption form the society.
• Noting that 65% of India population is below 35 years of age the Vice President stated the youngsters should lead from the front in building a new India- a happy and prosperous India where citizens get equal opportunities and where there is no discrimination of any kind.
• “Parakram” or Courage was the most defining feature of Netaji’s Persona and lauded the government decision to celebrate Bose’s birthday as “Parakram divas”.
• Referring to the pivotal role played by Bose and several freedom fighters, social reformers including unsung heroes from different regions, he said many people aren’t aware of their greatness as their contribution were not properly projected in the history books.

The High-level Panel that has been set up to commemorate Subhas Chandra Bose 125^th birth anniversary and why do we celebrate 23^rd January as Parakram Divas?

• There are many real contributions of many great men and women to the cause of our freedom struggle that have been written out of our history books since post-independence. Netaji role post 1938 defines an alternate different way for getting rid of the colonial powers was something that was airbrushed out of history.
• Born on 23rd January 1897, in Cuttack, Orissa Division, Bengal Province, Bose was a fierce nationalist, whose defiant patriotism made him one of the greatest freedom fighters in Indian history. After his house arrest Bose manages to escape to Berlin by way of Peshawar and Afghanistan.
• While in Germany on radio, Bose on 6th July 1944, addressed Mahatma Gandhi as the ‘Father of the Nation’.
• He reached Japan and from there to Burma and organized the Indian National Armyto fight the British and liberate India with the help of Japan.
• He organized youth and promoted trade union movements. In 1930, he was elected Mayor of Calcutta, the same year he was elected the President of AITUC.
• He stood for unqualified swaraj (independence), and opposed Motilal Nehru Report which spoke for dominion status for India.
• He died on 18th August 1945, in a plane crash in Japanese-ruled Formosa (now Taiwan).
• The nation today is recognizing him who was not just a brilliant, devoted follower of Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Nationalist, patriot and a man of incredible courage but his is a story itself to do what he did at the time when he did was brilliant and so to bring the awareness of that to the youth of India about forgotten heroes who strode the earth and so therefore Parakarm Divas will be celebrated every year to commemorate the man, his life and sacrifice.

How Netaji value are important & relevant even today?

• Netaji was a person who had a mission to accomplish which was to free India from colonial powers. Being very specific about his goals, he had given the famous slogan of “Dilli Chalo” & “Jai Hind”.
• Netaji had great empathy for those injured. Whomever he met he would speak about only one thing –“when can we, how can we and it’s not going to be easily gotten, It will have to be hard fought and all of you should be ready to sacrifice for the motherland.”

The great contribution of Netaji

• The picture we get on the Indian freedom struggle the reality is that the freedom struggle had many strands running in parallel. One was a larger strand of non-violence, which is therefore known about. But there are many local variants going around at local and national level. Many people felt non-violence had its losses but a time had come that India should pick up if required the gun because that was the only way to put pressure on the British.
• Netaji demonstrated that “If time comes one should not only flow with the stream, after all the dead fish flow with the stream & strong goes against it” so the message he is trying to convey is “if you believe that something is worth doing explore all the options and choose those options where the other side can be put off, if you are going to follow what is expected of you then may be the other side won’t take you seriously”.
• And looking at the political development of the period the British decided to give the Muslim League a veto over India independence, in that case to agree to what the British did all the while wouldn’t said that there are no cards in your hand & Netaji ability to sense that opportunity, to sense that there was a need to militarily put pressure on the British so that they realize to govern India they needed the support of far more than was possible , that would put the British on the defensive.
• So the strongest message to be learnt from Netaji was courage, empathy & strength of character that though the people are opposed him he went ahead and did this because he knew sacrifice and suffering is required to liberate the motherland and when that comes in we have to let go of personal ego.
• He left the post of Congress President because the cause was more important to him than the post and never allowed the other side dictate the terms of engagement.
• At the end of the day there is a cause, the nation, the country and when saying so that you are committed to the cause of the nation, you have to be prepared to go the extra mile, not just manage a few comfort and discomfort.

Relevance of Netaji in 2021 and we must commend this government for ensuring that the forgotten hero is being brought back to the spotlight and is been given his due. Is political angle to that?

• He was a young ICS officer and could have made a career out of that becoming one of the rising stars, President of All India Youth Congress(1923), became twice the President of INC (1938-Haripur ,1939-In Tripuri he won the presidential elections against Gandhi’s candidate Pattabhi Sitarammayya.) and had to give that up because he did not agree there had to be a graded gradual compromise approach towards getting what he believed was our birthright-which is independence.
• Due to ideological differences with Gandhi, Bose left congressand found a new party, ‘the Forward Bloc’.
• Because of the air brushing of post-Independence history, Netaji could not be that legend which he must be for our youth. Parakram Divas will trigger re-valuation of what really caused independence & what really took us to the 1946 Mumbai mutiny, what broke the back of the British and caused them to run and forget about dominion status dream they had.
• Netaji believed we need in this country people who not only do their jobs very well but also are well read and have a strength of character to take the movement forward.
• Wherever we are and whatever we do, the Parakram Divas should be a key thing in our country being because it propels the youth to go the next level, teaching about honesty and sacrifice, about India as country and not factionalism.

Over the years why wasn’t Netaji, given his due & was sidelined, and now why is he in spotlight?

• Post-independence many things were airbrushed, many things which were not like, because of it did not belong to the right thinking, the right political lineage etc.
• Now in that case many of the people who appear as odd because they are disturbing the rhythm of what you’re trying to present, you just remove them from history, relegate them to the footnotes.
• Netaji suffered that fight and he wasn’t the only one for example Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Though Gandhi being the overall leader today the people do not understand how Patel ran the organization of congress party for 20 years. Netaji is a classic case who did not fit in the narrative which wanted to be presented to people. So these people if you project them then you are showing that they were leaders other than leaders that you want to project.
• Netaji was a mass leader with appeal running when the Tamil independent labour of then Malaya is prepared to join up and contribute. People in Burma ready to contributed especially women giving up their jewelry to fund for Azad Hind Fauz.
• You do not want to portray such people whose appeal was across the country, across languages, communities and religion. And thus you sideline them and that is really unfortunate who isn’t been accepted who advocating on the same say as you are.
• Give that person respect that he deserves, he is the true size of patriotism. We must recognize your own heroes get in your eyes diminish and therefore airbrush all these inconvenient people out and present a very sanitize view of history.

Do we need to get an alternative viewpoint trough as well as rewrite some of history books so India true history comes out?

• We have been fed with a narrative that was scripted, written by forces that did not want the truth to be known. Our great country had many great people who stood up and fought up for what is right and unfortunately instead of giving us right narrative both contemporarily and historically, we have been given history that is been cooked and fed around a few personalities of few dynasty.
• The coming generation must look back at real India & the heroes who served and sacrificed at different stages of history that is unfiltered or external influenced or colonial overhand that has badly distorted the history of real India.