The death of Mulayam
Singh Yadav is sad as he was a great political leader and his
contribution to Indian politics in general in our country and Uttar Pradesh in
particular from time to time has been highlighted in many prints and electronic
media. With a political career straddling more than six decades, being
elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) seven times and the Member of the
Legislative Assembly (MLA) 10 times, the veteran politician was a prominent
political leader. In 1992, Yadav set up his own Samajwadi Party (Socialist
Party). He served three non-consecutive terms as the Chief Minister of Uttar
Pradesh, and also served as the Minister of Defence, at the Government of
India. Later on, his son the young Akhilesh Yadav became Chief Minister of
Uttar Pradesh in 2012. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s controversial statement on rape
many Indians did not take in the good sense. Anyway, he was often referred to
as Netaji by party leaders, workers, and others (reason which may be
understood). But as a senior citizen and academician, I cannot accept. In this
context, I wish to mention all Indians even many Pakistanis and Bangladeshis
talked about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s immense contribution to the freedom
movement of India. So, Netaji means Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. It is pertinent
to mention that Mahatma means Gandhiji. Indians have accepted Mahatma for
Gandhiji then why some people will use Netaji for Mulayam Singh Yadav? Many
newspapers highlighted ‘Netaji’ for Mulayam Singh Yadav. Can they write
for any other stalwarts? Here I wish to mention a few lines about Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose’s contribution to those who are not aware. While Subhas
Chandra Bose was Congress President, many admired him for his energetic role
and that is why he was elected President of Indian National Congress for two
consecutive terms but had to resign in the mid of second term due to
ideological differences with Gandhiji as Mahatma Gandhi preferred Pattabhi
Sitaramaiah, but he was defeated. It is believed that albeit
Pattabhi Sitaramaiah was a Telugu person hailing from the southern part of
India but many persons of the southern region of India voted in favour of
Netaji Subhas. Anyhow, while Netaji was Congress President he carried out many
remarkable works - one was his initiative to keep Assam with India as then
Muslim League leaders’ had different game plans. In 1938, Assam was passing
through great political turmoil as there was a serious political problem -
Muslim League vs. Congress. During that time, Gopinath Bordoloi invited Netaji
(President of Congress at that time) to come to Assam and intervene. Netaji
Subhas Chandra immediately rushed to Assam and strongly advocated the formation
of the ministry under the leadership of Gopinath Bordoloi. As a sequel,
Assamese youths were happy and a booklet on Netaji was published by some
enthusiastic students of Cotton College in 1939, under the umbrella of the All
Assam Progressive Youth Association (AAPYA, formed at that time).
While Netaji Subhas was Head of the Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind
Fauj, Dr. (Mrs.) Lakshmi Swaminathan met him in Singapore and decided to join
the freedom movement as she was impressed with the charismatic speech of Netaji
Subhas. She as Captain Lakshmi headed a regiment called Jhansi Rani
Laxmi Bai Regiment. It was the first regiment headed by a lady in Asia
with around 1000 women personnel. Also, it is pertinent to mention that around
60,000 persons consisting of all religions were in Azad Hind Fauj and brigades
were in the name of great personalities like Gandhi brigade, Nehru brigade, Azad
brigade, Subhas brigade, Rani of Jhansi regiment.
No Indian can forget Netaji’s
great statement, ‘You give me your blood and I will give you
Independence!’
3 Comments
Sir good morning
ReplyDeleteSir very interesting article and write up on Netaji and you have rightly pointed that calling Mulayam as Netaji is not proper and more particularly Netaji's contribution to freedom of this country is immense and matchless, no leader of this country matches the great patriot Netaji.
Kudos to you sir
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
T. Sanjeev Reddy, Hyderabad
Great write up sir and extremely knowledgable too. Netaji is truly only one and that is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. I feel that the curriculum books at school level in India irrespective of the education board should cover more information about Netaji other than only the facts that he founded Azad Hind Fauj and the quote "Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azaadi doonga". Similarly, contributions of other freedom fighters like Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel too needs to be incorporated in school curriculum elaborately and in much detail.
ReplyDeleteVery impressive article and we should share such educational and informative articles on social media sites too.
ReplyDelete