By D N Singh
16 Herbet Street
Mr Right, Honourable E S Nconlique,MP, Secretary of State, India
“sir’
“I desire to have my name removed from the list of probationers in the Indian Civil Service.
I may state in this connection that I was selected as a result of an open competitive examination held in August 1920. I have received an allowance of 100 pounds only up till now. I shall remit the amount to the India Officer as soon my resignation is accepted.
I have the honour to be sir,
Your most obedient servant”
Subhas Chandra Bose
The above communication does not require further elaboration to speak anything more about our freedom fighters and obviously Netaji’s above note has the most noticeable commitment for the country. Those were our martyrs whom we remember on this day of January 30.
On which day, the country’s unparalleled freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi fell to the bullets of an attacker whom the Father of the Nation absolved of all his intents behind shooting him down near the prayer venue.
“On behalf of a grateful nation, my humble tributes to the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who embraced martyrdom this day(Jan 30). We should adhere to his ideals of peace, non-violence, simplicity, purity of means and humility. Let us resolve to follow his path of truth and love” the above lines came from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
That inspires all to be seen as a rare quote far removed from the smudged veneers of politics.
January 30 was the day, the Mahatma was killed by someone firing three bullets from point blank.
The nation was numbed and those who knew the ‘Sant of Sabarmati’ were left shocked on Jan 30.
The list is long and the space is so little to mention all here.
The great freedom fighters who had carved a new space for themselves transcending comparison. Sahid Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev or Shivram Rajguru, all were at the citadels of self-less fight for India.
Somehow, down the decades, the corrosive edge of politics has blighted the memories of those heroes but, now we simply go by the dates in the calendars for the remembrance.
This Day or That Day, whereas the values and valor they had espoused throughout the struggle now seem dissolved in the dust-laden pages of history.
Even the politics of the day, has exhibited the temerity to debate over the sacrifices, drawing comparisons from an integral calculus on one’s political allegiance.
It is for the ones who never showed their backs to the bullets from the imperialists.
It took a long time to assess the intentions of Netaji Subhash Chandra Boses’s approach to the cause of freedom. Means may be many but all had a common target and that was independence at any cost.
Netaji simply wanted to boot out the imperialists with a matching might they had used.
Even then also some clouds of dissipation loomed over but the differences were given to be crushed by the purity of purpose of those great martyrs of India.
Social discords were always there and are still there but those have been leveled by the purity of purpose.
So, at last, the centuries old hegemony suffered an inglorious burial in this land of Gandhi and Subash.
