“Netaji could have taken us past China” — the TOI quotes Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy. Here’s a bit.
“He was bold, upright and could take on anybody. He could question even Mahatma Gandhi and dared to disagree with him, which he did on the dominion status issue. Netaji knew that areas like population control, industries, agriculture and health were key to the country’s growth and had expressed his views on these. His views were strikingly modern and practical which makes me conclude that India would have done better than China with him in the front seat of the government,” Murthy said.
Criticizing the Centre for not paying “due respect to this great son of India”, Murthy felt it was time to correct the mistake. “I have heard that Delhi doesn’t have a single prominent avenue named after him. This is a shame and I hope our wonderful Prime Minister will soon correct this lacunae,” he added.
Wonderful prime minister, eh? That wonderful prime minister would correct something right after hell freezes over.
That PM belongs to the slave dynasty.
Consider this. New Delhi has major roads named after a ruler who slaughtered Indians wholesale. Aurangzeb. New Delhi will never have a road named after a nationalist.
The unpalatable truth may be that Indians have been in slavery too long and cannot imagine freedom from the tyrants that have ruled the land — and still continue to rule it.
An Italian, Antonia Maino aka Sonia Gandhi, heads the UPA, the ruling coalition in New Delhi. This fact does not seem to bother too many people, does it? This would not have ever happened to a people who had any sense of pride and honor.
Fact is that India has been ruled by foreigners for centuries. If Indians in fact indeed had had pride and honor, centuries of foreign rule would not have happened.
That Antonia Maino has hanger-ons like Dr Singh and the rest of the unmentionable gang of crooks is not surprising at all. The tradition is long and enduring. Foreigners ruled India because of people like them.
India is a long way from freedom. While India’s enemies rule India, the names of India’s enemies will be seen in its capital. The time has not yet come for Netaji Bose’s name to adorn anything in India.
[Hat tip Raja for the TOI link who commented —
“Sad that Calcutta is the only place that seems to honor Netaji by naming landmarks after him. If his plan to liberate India via the INA had succeeded we might not be a bunch of Gandhigiri indulging ‘turn the other cheek’ peaceniks today. NRN has openly criticized Nehru’s economic policies by his statement. Imagine if the 1991 liberalization had been done a few decades earlier – even our parents’ generation would have prospered.
]
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 
Finally, Mr.Murthy has spoken up; it’s about time anyway.
If I remember correctly, there was an NSC Bose Marg in Delhi…or have I got my cities mixed up?
The GOI (Cong) has hidden critical information on Bose from the public for decades and it was later reported that several files held by the PMO were burnt during Mrs. G’s tenure.
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If the great sons of the nation are given recognition.Avenues and instiutes are named after them then what will happen to the sons of the Gandhi dynasty and the dynasty of their sycophants ?
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“If Indians in fact indeed had had pride and honor, centuries of foreign rule would not have happened.” — done, so Indians suffer because of their own shortcoming, justice served, why interfere?
It is actually befitting NRN’s low wattage CPU to come up with this brilliant plan to redress history. Bose can’t care. No one cares. What matters for India is not that places be named after Bose but that people stop breeding and start educating themselves. Not for the first time, NRN’s prescription is a placebo.
There’s every reason to believe that Gandhi knew of the damage from overpopulation quite as much as Bose. The reason you have an MG Road in every shantytown and Bose is an audio company is because Bose spoke out his mind and Gandhi dressed it up.
So who won? Not India, for sure.
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Atanu,
While, I won’t be able to explain it in words, I for the first time felt, why it is wrong for a foreign-born and more important, foreign-bred person to rule any country.
I had always objected to anyone (including, yourself) bringing up Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origins, citing, how even the Indian politicians are as corrupt. But it seems, my view had been cynical, whereas, you speak from perspective of “aspiration”. There is something seriously wrong with over 1.2 billion people if they do not yearn for a person to lead/guide them who would have shared the same aspirations as them as a child of seeing the country progress and seeing all the fellow humans happy and prosperous. There is something seriously wrong if people feel that someone born in Italy, and who presumably, would have fantasized in formative years of her life of betterment of Italy, and for who, India/Indians would have meant nothing, would suddenly or for that matter, even over years, have a change of heart and would relate as well with fellow Indians as any other Indian-bred Indian. It is seriously wrong if we have no qualms surrendering a part of our freedom, our money, our sovereignty to someone who had not spent formative years of her life amongst “us”.
None of what I wrote above is rhetoric, but something I truly felt for the first time.
However, there is a lurking doubt. Atanu, you had perhaps spent some part of your life in Nagpur, then some in the USA and then Mumbai and Pune. I presume, and correct me, if I am wrong, you had never lived in a village in West Bengal to feel like a Bengali *first* and then Indian *second*. But you know, there are millions who think of themselves as Indian maybe *third* or *fourth*.
Where I did my graduation in Maharashtra, the college did not give holiday on 2nd October (on which it is mandatory to give a holiday as it is only one of the three “national festivals”). Why? Not because, the trustees who run the college disagreed with Gandhi’s philosophy. There is a huge divide between Marathis and Gujaratis in terms of regional pride. Many Maharashtrians feel that the likes of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Veer Savarkar did not get their due as freedom fighters because of a conniving Gujarati like Gandhi (I do not know, what most Maharashtrians feel about Sardar Patel, though perhaps, they don’t dislike him much because he was also not glorified as much as Gandhi). So what is “Indian” to you, “Maharashtrian” is to Maharashtrians. My college is in Ahmednagar district, and I am always amazed by what kind of support Sharad Pawar summons there! I think most people know what kind of leader he is. Forget, his role as agriculture minister at the Center, his role even in Maharashtra as a CM was nothing to write home about. Yet, in Ahmednagar district, people worship him. Criticizing him had made a few of my locals who admired him get quite passionate.
And similar is the reason, at least some people in Ahmednagar district resent Narendra Modi, because of this traditional rivalry between Marathis and Gujaratis. What is Antonia Maino to you, Narendra Modi or Mayawati or Mamta Bannerjee would be to Maharashtrians. And I am not even bringing into picture other factors like caste, religion, etc.
Though, I must say how Modi has been able to gain popularity in almost all states (except, Maharashtra) is something that is amazing.
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Let us not make just more maargs and statues out of the real brave sons and daughters of India.
We Indians as a society are good at converting anything that is “live” and “upright” into fossils and icons that are useful for worship and garlanding. Yes, there is a great deficit in India, but it is not of statues but of real people who are upright.
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There is no doubt in my mind about Indian govt. not giving enough respect to all its freedom fighters.
Gandhi is given a monopoly without wanting one. What an example of stupidity (or intelligence from govt pov, to brainwash its masses) it can be than to put a monk’s face on the currency note?
And his surname has been a good currency so far.
I don’t see Gandhi as one who belongs to just Gujaratis just as I think highly of Bhagat Singh and don’t agree that only Sikhs can be proud of his courage or a little known person named Babu Genu, who chose to be crused under a truck in a protest, which was carrying foreign cloth in Kalbadevi.
In my opinion, people who think of fighters as “regional” & hence worth of pride, have a less open mind & heart to understand that the freedom fighters didn’t fights for their own Maharashtra or Gujarat Or Bengal.
Its easy to brainwash us by creating a regional hero & making other heroes less worthy. Ordinary people look for heroes, very ordinary people look to capitalize on the hero for its birth place, language, city, state etc.
Should I be proud that Sachin is a Marathi?
OR
Should I be proud that Sachin is a good player & a sports person from India?
Note that answer to both the above question doesn’t conflict with the other 🙂
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Naming roads and colleges and schemes is a useless symbolic exercise.India needs actions based on Bose’s vision.Nothing less is sufficient.
One key difference between India and China in terms of colonial history is that foreigners acted as dividing agents in China,while as uniting agents in India.India was divided due to intra & inter-religious and regional causes.
Indonesia ‘created’ a new national language and then encouraged everyone to learn it.This reduced the gaps between various language groups in the country.
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I have 3 points to make here
(1) Is there a video of the event.
I dont trust TOI.
(2) It is highly speculatory so as to what SCB would have done had he won.
Though its clear that Had his side won surely india would be ahead of china as japan would conroling china.
(3)
At least Antonia Maino is an indian citizen, unlike well you know who.
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This is really a nice article and very motivating
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Atanu
This is a mistake! I’ve skimmed a few books on Bose while writing my lame term paper. The guy was for socialism. Google it. He repeatedly mentioned that if India was to develop, it needed socialism. Now, so was Nehru, but we know Bose was a nationalist and Nehru was a crooked brown sahib Fabian. This mayyy have ensured that Netaji would change his mind after socialism had failed much earlier, but its no guarantee. Lord Acton etc etc.
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Quote:
“Sad that Calcutta is the only place that seems to honor Netaji by naming landmarks after him…”
Completely Disagree.
Very few people know that Netaji was born and brought up for a long time in Orissa. Later in his life, he studied in Bengal.
In Orissa, Netaji is worshipped and known much more than M.K Gandhi. In any village in Orissa including my generation, Netaji lives strongly in the folklore.
Govt. of Orissa minted coins during his birth centenary celebration. Govt. of Orissa maintains the profile of Netaji in its website (West Bengal govt., I think, does not) and the biggest mall in Oriya Bazar where Netaji was born is named after him.
In my hometown, in coastal Orissa, there are at least 2 landmarks (hall and road) are named after him.
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Quote:
“Sad that Calcutta is the only place that seems to honor Netaji by naming landmarks after him…”
Completely Disagree.
Very few people know that Netaji was born and brought up for a long time in Orissa. Later in his life, he studied in Bengal.
In Orissa, Netaji is worshipped and known much more than M.K Gandhi. In any village in Orissa including my generation, Netaji lives strongly in the folklore.
Govt. of Orissa minted coins during his birth centenary celebration. Govt. of Orissa maintains the profile of Netaji in its website (West Bengal govt., I think, does not) and the biggest mall in Oriya Bazar where Netaji was born is named after him.
In my hometown, in coastal Orissa, there are at least 2 landmarks (hall and road) are named after him.
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I wonder whether Netaji did not die in that plane crash after all. Maybe he was living incognito in some other country.
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I is in my opinion useless tinkering with an idea of having landmarks /icons/statues/roads/halls be named after our Great leaders.
Netaji Subhas Bose was once sneered at by his father who told him why is he wasting his time in things which will not pay or comfort him in any way.A scholar that he is should certainly sit in ICS (Indian Civil Services’now converted in to IAS)examination and be a man with power and pomp .
Netaji did go to England where the examinationed used to be held and got high rank perhaps second due to the fact that no Indian can be awarded place at the top because Enlish Pride would have been shattered.Thus went the top of the list place to an Englishman.
Netaji sent an express message to his father that although he has competed but shall not join the services as he was not inclined to accept subordinacy to the British Government.
It will be a land mark decision of we Indians if we can form a group who may put pressure on the Indian Government to unravel everything around Netaji,s Death . Certainly the fate of we Indians has been shielded by one family ,the members of this family have wreaked havoc on all the aspects of prosperity of the entire population of India.If Netaji would have held the reins then I am sure what to talk of the Chinese or Japanese even Americans or the Italians would have been squarely amazed at the GOLD THAT INDIA WOULD HAVE BEEN. But the Britishers’ terms of giving India its Indepenence engraved that NETAJI CAN NEVER HOLD ANY POSITION OF POWER to which one Gandhian(Nehru) readily agreed as for him it was equal to holding heaven in both his hands.I will further inidict this family ,that they have got him massacred somewhere and all the proofs have been washed away.
I remember a two liner “Jis din niche hogi na mahi(earth),upar hoga aakas nahin / us din hoga viswas mujhe ki Jag me Subhas nahin .”Today also my eyes fill with water at the way our so -called NETA of not today but from 1947 have slowly sold the country and had Netaji been there this breed of politicians would not at all have been born even.
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Every country has a clause that a foreign born should not be a prime minister of the country. India, just has no clauses.
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If Netaji succeeded in liberating India through INA and became the first Prime Minister of India, then we would have been a super power by now.
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I came across this from one Capt. Vadakayil
http://ajitvadakayil.blogspot.in/2011/08/netaji-subhash-chandra-bose-untold.html
I looked further and I see a record only of General Imamura maintain that Indians sent to Papua New Guinea for labour were a part of the INA and were not POW. It seems Gen Imamura was one of the first Generals who decided to use Asian POWs for labour / mobilisation while he was in Java, early 1942. [Ref. Japanese sources].
The INA attempt was a tragedy, painful for everyone. But lessons can be learnt.
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