Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj. Gen. (retd.) BC Khanduri stressed the need of rewriting Indian history to remove the anti-national tilt given to it by the British historians. He was addressing a ceremony organised by Rashtriya Yodha Smarak Samiti in Karnal on November 16. Dedicated to the death anniversary of great warrior Prithviraj Chauhan, the ceremony was organised as Sameeksha Diwas. Held in the august presence of Swami Gyananand Maharaj, the programme was presided over by Sardar Bhupinder Singh Johar, industrialist and chairman of Guru Nanak Khalsa Educational Institutions, Yamunanagar.
In his speech Shri Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri said it was unfortunate that the remnants of the education policy carved out by Macaulay to serve the interests of British imperialists were yet to be flushed out of our education system. He said the country must remember and honour its valiant heroes who fought for its glory at various points of time in the history. He said as an ex-army officer he was overwhelmed by the initiative of the Samiti that had assumed the task of reviving the national self respect by inculcating the actual facts regarding Indian history into the minds of new generation. He indirectly castigated the union government for following the policy of religious appeasement and said it would ultimately weaken the nation.
Swami Gyananand lauded the efforts of the Samiti chairman Shri Darshan Lal Jain stating that it was high time that the country identified its real heroes and the practice of glorifying the invaders was done away with. He said it was painful that till date there were no befitting memorials of Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan and Hem Chandra Vikramaditya in Haryana. He said Indian culture and traditions had always advocated world peace but at times our liberalism was taken as our weakness by the forces that be.
Sardar Bhupinder Singh Johar said the initiative of the Rashtriya Yodha Smarak Samiti was really revolutionary especially as it is going to create a bridge between the glorious history of the country and the new generation. In his presentation that covered past two thousand years of India'shistory Atul Rawat said the text of Indian history being taught today was full of anti-India bias and the same was induced into it by the colonial rulers in a planned manner. He said while the victories and the glorious phases of our past have been ignored by those who penned down the history, our defeats have been highlighted in a disproportionate manner. He cited several such examples claiming that the Rajput history had been distorted to a great extent. He said the valiant Rajputs and Jats who lived northern India were yet to get their due place in the history.
Giving details of the issues being taken up by the Samiti, Shri Darshan Lal Jain said the organisation had taken up the issue of building memorials of the 2 Battles of Panipat as well a memorial dedicated to Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan with the state government. A proposal in this regard was recently submitted to the Chief Minister of Haryana. He said he was hopeful of a positive outcome of these efforts in near future. Samiti vice president Sudhir Bhargav read out the speech of Justice (retd.) VS Kokje in which he said that country always suffered due to lack of unity and the spirit of nationalism. The country was loosing politically inspite of cultural integrity of the society. Liberty Group Executive Director Sunil Bansal also praised the organisers for their noble initiatives. Virender Singh Chauhan, chairperson Department of Mass Communication, CDLU, Sirsa said a mass movement should be started to make the youth aware of the glorious past of the country. Mukesh Garg, Secretary of the Samiti, Ashok Gupta, convener of the ceremony also spoke on the occasion. Uttarakhand Health Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ?Nishank? and MLA Suresh Jain also accompanied the Chief Minister BC Khanduri at the programme.
(FOC)
