Courtesy: https://twitter.com/sheshapatangi1/status/1617365458503753733?s=46&t=Oges_wXGi7NbKfnOe6mWhQ
Leftists are trying to distort Netaji by claiming Bose was a Leftist & was against Savarkar…
Time to debunk their propaganda with real history…
After Subhas Chandra Bose’s escape from Calcutta, Savarkar had issued a statement, “May the gratitude, sympathy and good wishes of a nation be a source of never-failing solace and inspiration to him. Wherever he happens to be, I have no doubt he will contribute his all, even health and life to the cause of Indian freedom.”
One of the defining moments in this relationship was a three-hour meeting that took place between Bose and Savarkar on 22 June, 1940. The meeting took place at Savarkar’s residence-Savarkar Sadan in Mumbai. Savarkar’s personal secretary Balarao revealed what had happened in that meeting in a letter dated 2 June 1954: “It may be mentioned here that it was a private and personal meeting between Subhas Babu and Savarkarji that a definite suggestion was made to Subhas babu by Savarkar Ji that he should try to leave India and undertake the risk of going over to Germany to organise the Indian forces there fallen in German hands as
captives & then with German help should proceed to Japan to join hands with Sri Rash Behari Bose. To impress this point, Savarkarji showed to Subhas Babu a letter from Sri Bose (Rash Behari) to Savarkarji written just on the eve of Japanese declaration of war.”
Around 6 months after this meeting, Bose took exactly D same route as was said to have been discussed in the meeting. In Jan 1941, he disappeared from his house on Elgin Road in Kolkata & eventually joined Rash Behari in Japan.
Vikram Sampath explains in Savarkar: A Contested Legacy (Pp418-19)
“Rash Behari Bose was… holding a Tokyo Conference during 28-30 March 1942 where it was resolved to form an Indian National Army under the direct command of Indian officers who would conduct the campaign to liberate India.
After INA’s campaign came to a close due to the defeat of Japan in World War II, around 250,00 Indian soldiers were taken as prisoners of war by the British.
While most of the Congress leaders kept a deafening silence on this issue, Savarkar came out openly in defence of these soldiers. He sent a cable to the then British PM Attlee on 1 Dec 1945 which read: “In view of general convention of international treatment dealt out to war prisoners & in view of the very deep discontent aroused in the public mind, which could not be easily appeased I implore apart from any question of right that every Indian under arrest of those war prisoners whether they belong to the Subhas Sainiks or outside of it should be released without any humiliating conditions as an act of grace by declaring gen amnesty.”
Earlier Netaji talked about Savarkar in radio broadcast from Singapore on 25 June 1944 where he said, “When due to misguided political whims & lack of vision almost all the leaders of the Congress Party are decrying all the soldiers in the Indian Army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know that Veer Savarkar is fearlessly exhorting the youth of India to enlist in the Armed Forces. These enlisted youth themselves provide us with the trained men from which we draw the soldiers of our INA.”
Eminent Congressman NB Khare wrote in My Political Memoirs about INA, “In this enterprise, Subhas Bose took his inspiration from Savarkar’s book on Indian War of Independence of 1857. In one of his speeches, Subhas Bose has freely admitted this. He also distributed copies of this book freely amongst all the army personnel. He named one of his regiments as Rani of Jhansi Regiment, borrowed the slogan ‘Chalo Dilli’ from the Indian soldiers in Meerut who marched to Delhi from there on the 10th May of 1857.”
Kapil Kumar, former prof, IGNOU, stumbled upon some letters of the INA trials & Military Intelligence reports. A letter in his collection, dated 31 May 1946, is from a soldier to the INA Relief Committee and is addressed to Sardar Patel: ‘I am very glad to inform that the C-in-C in India has now permitted to read any newspapers prohibited since a long time… Sir, there are Indian soldiers who still raise their rifles against their own brothers… Simultaneously there are men who have INA at heart and worshipping ‘Netaji’ as their God & waiting for the order, who joined the Army by the advice of Barrister Savarkar in 1942. Still, the same light is in the lamp…”
Through his compilation of the letters of the time, Kumar asserts that several soldiers of the INA were from Maharashtra and were seemingly inspired to join through the call given by Savarkar for militarisation.
Incidentally, Rash Behari also spoke very highly of Savarkar in a radio address as he said, “In saluting you, I have the joy of doing my duty towards one of my elderly comrades-in-arms. In saluting you, I am saluting the symbol of sacrifice itself.”
It is clear from the above that Netaji and Savarkar worked in close coordination and the relationship between Savarkar, Netjaji, Rash Behari Bose and INA was not only one of the most glorious chapters of India’s struggle for freedom, but together they played an instrumental role in forcing the British to leave India after WW II.
In one of his last interviews with the Organiser in 1965, out of the 4 key factors listed by Savarkar that led to
Independence, 3 were directly or indirectly linked to Bose.
According to Savarkar, “There are many factors, which contributed to the freedom of Bharat. It is wrong to imagine that Congress alone won Independence for Hindusthan. It is equally absurd to think that Non-Cooperation Charkha, Quit India Movement were responsible for the withdrawal of the British power. There were other dynamic & compelling forces, which finally determined the issue of freedom.
First, Indian politics was carried to the Army, on whom the British depended entirely to hold down Hindusthan;
2) There was a revolt of the Royal Indian Navy and a threat by the Air Force;
3) The valiant role of Netaji Subhas Bose & INA;
4) The War of Independence in 1857, which shook the British;
5) The terrific sacrifices made by 1000s of revolutionaries and patriots in the ranks of the Congress, other groups and parties.”
Communists has no right either to gloat, their despicable role played in the Subhas saga by sabotaging his activities, by dubbing him as Tojo’s dog or Indian Quisling is buried. In fact Hindu Mahasabha was much more sober in its appraisal of Subhas. Its leader Santosh Mukherjee sharply rebuked a leftist when he referred to Subhas as Quisling, telling him that Quisling sold his own country to enemies, Subhas had sold his everything for his own country. Irrespective of whatever the Communists & their
anti National stooges propagate, Savarkar was true & ardent nationalist & Bose respected him for that. Even though Commis in their later avatars tried to become lovers of Subhas, their credibility is anyway at an all time low to seriously believe in them.
