netaji
The event in progress. Photo Credit - Northeast Now

Chandra Kumar Bose, grandnephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, alleged on Monday that the Congress had distorted the history of India’s freedom struggle and the time has come to “teach the real history to posterity”.

Bose who was speaking at a programme organised by a civil society named ‘Elite Society’ in Agartala on Monday on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Azad Hind Government (which was formed during exile in Singapore in 1943), said, “For the last 70 years, our students have been taught distorted history, true history has not been told. India’s children were never told about the real heroes who gave the country her freedom. The first battle of India’s Independence started in 1857 which was the Sepoy Mutiny and a sepoy named Mangal Pandey fired the first shot of the uprising. The final onslaught on British Imperialism was the battle of the Azad Hind Fauj,” Bose remarked.

“We know that the Azad Hind Fauj lost the battle but it won the war against the British imperialists. The Indian National Army (INA) trials which were held in the Red Fort in 1945 and 1946 completely shattered the image of the British armed forces in India and it was then that the British realised that they have to relinquish India and they decided to leave. This truth must be published in the history books,” Bose further remarked.

According to him, the British left India mainly because of the Azad Hind Fauj led by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose but unfortunately, in history books it is taught that the British were compelled to leave India due to Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence movement which is a “blatant lie”.

Bose said, “Gandhiji’s non-violence movement had minimal impact on the freedom movement. Gandhiji’s contribution was that he converted an elite club Congress into a mass movement but it did not drive out the British. The British were driven out by the Azad Hind Fauj and the Supreme Commander of the Azad Hind Fauj was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The country would have gained Independence in 1944 itself if the Congress had supported Netaji.”

Without naming the Congress and Nehru he said, “Today those who say that BJP is a fundamentalist party forget the fact that Congress is a fundamentalist party too. Who had divided India into two parts? It was the then Congress leaders who were responsible for the Partition of India. Nehru and Mohammad Ali Jinnah joined hands and decided to go for Partition so that they could wear the respective crowns. This fact should be taught in the history books. Nobody knows the mystery behind the disappearance of Subhash Chandra Bose till today due to lack of evidence. Maybe, all evidence has been destroyed. But, had Netaji been alive today, then India would have been one nation and a jihadi nation like Pakistan would not have got created.”

Bose also appealed to the Modi Government for declassifying several files relating to Netaji’s mysterious disappearance after the Taiwan plane crash in 1945. Earlier, in 2016, around 100 files were declassified. The other notable speaker at the programme was Major General (Retired) GD Bakshi.

Pinaki Das is Northeast Now Correspondent in Agartala. He can be reached at: [email protected]