The narrow outlook of the Congress cannot afford to accommodate personalities outside of the Nehru-Gandhi nexus. During the long years when the Congress was in power, it hijacked the story of India'sfreedom struggle, believing and wanting to make others believe that the fight for freedom was wholly crafted by two individuals, discrediting the roles played by thousands of great men and women, who suffered and made sacrifices, in many cases of their lives, for the nation.
The apathy of the Congress becomes apparent in the disrespect shown by its UPA government towards great freedom fighters. The UPA textbooks depict great revolutionaries, the famous trio known as Lal, Bal and Pal, namely, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal as ?terrorists?. Moreover, the government failed to organise any programme on the occasion of 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on March 23rd. Neither Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh nor Congress President Smt Sonia Gandhi paid any tributes to these great freedom fighters who laid down their lives for the country at a very young age. They did not even bother to visit any of their memorials.
When Delhi-based Devashish Bhattacharya, after not seeing even a small advertisement in the daily newspapers or television or radio on Netaji'sbirthday, sought information under the Right to Information Act on what role Netaji had played in the freedom movement and the Union Home Ministry unashamedly replied that it had no information in its records about the contribution of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to India'sfreedom struggle.
The same government had tried to insult Swatantryaveer Savarkar by removing his quotation from a plaque installed at Port Blair, where he had spent eleven valuable years of his life in the most tormenting conditions. To prove their point, the ministers of the government heaped all sorts of false allegations on the man whose entire family had suffered for the sake of India'sfreedom. Earlier when in the opposition, the Congress and its allies had vehemently opposed the installation of a portrait of the great hero in Parliament deceitfully levelling dirty charges against him.
When the Member of Parliament from Kutch, Pushpadan Gadhvi, proposed to rename the Bhuj Airport after the revolutionary leader from Kutch, Shri Shyamji Krishna Varma, the Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel turned down the proposal stating: ?existing policy was to generally retain the names of cities for domestic airports, since passengers, especially foreign tourists and other visitors who may not be familiar with local history, find it easier to identify an airport when it is named after the city.? Lies! Blatant lies! The Leh Airport was renamed after Kushok Bakula Rimpochee, the Buddhist spiritual leader and Head Lama of Ladakh, by the UPA government. There are other domestic airports named after the heroes of local and national history like Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport (Indore), Raja Bhoj Airport (Bhopal), Birsa Munda Airport (Ranchi), Vir Savarkar Airport (Port Blair), and Biju Patnaik Airport (Bhubaneshwar). Moreover, Shri Shyamji Krishna Varma'scontributions were not limited to local history. He is a known figure in national and international history.
Perturbed by the hurdles created by the UPA government in the construction of Sardar Sarovar dam, named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and knowing that UPA'sadoration is restricted to Nehrus and Gandhis only, Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi had once said that he could consider renaming the project after Rajeev Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi for its speedy completion because he strongly felt that the hurdles were being created only because of Sardar Patel'sname in the project.
The foundation for India'sfreedom was laid by the blood and sufferings of countless noble men and women. The martyrdom of the revolutionaries, the inhuman sufferings of the freedom fighters during the Kalapani, the sacrifices of the brave soldiers of the Indian National Army were all instrumental in India'sliberation.
Independence is an asset collectively obtained and held by the nation and not the personal property of a dynasty which can tamper history to glorify itself. It is important that the credit for Independence be granted impartially to all known and unknown patriots who contributed whatever they could for the benefit of the coming generations. (SR)
