NO PLACE FOR NETAJI IN PARLIAMENT

In his historic first speech in Parliament, Professor Samar Guha tore into the way Netaji\\'s legacy had been treated by the Government.

By Professor Samar Guha

This is the first time for me to have the privilege of speaking in this House, Nevertheless I will use this opportunity to raise my voice of protest and indignation in this temple of democracy about the policy that had been so long pursued by the Government about Netaji, the apostle of Indian revolution and the greatest Kshatriya after Shivaji in India.

As a new member when I entered the Central Hall of this Parliament, I was naturally very happy to see so many pictures of the makers of India. I was eagerly looking for another portrait --portrait of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose but I was shocked to find that although this Government had a mind to install during the last twenty years, one by one, portraits of the makers of India in the Central Hall, they did not have any intention to place the portrait of Netaji in the Central Hall ....

One may wonder whether it was an act of advertent omission on the part of the Central Government. But looking to the background of the policy pursued by the Government about Netaji. I say it was no an omission but it was a deliberate and calculated act on the part of the Congress Government to minimise the position of Netaji and relegate him to secondary leadership in the history of national freedom.

I have already stated that calculated attempts have been made to distort the history of the freedom movement. Our Government has made many attempts to create an impression in our country and abroad also that this country achieved freedom only under the Gandhian leadership and only by means of non-violent satyagrah ....

I do not know whether the Members of this House have forgotten that just after freedom was achieved, a committee to draw up the history of Indian freedom struggle was formed under the chairmanship of Dr RC Majumdar, the most eminent among the living historians of India. But it almost passed out of the attention of any that this committee was unceremoniously scuttled. Do you know for what crime? Because the historian, a seeker after truth, showed the temerity to make the suggestion that although Gandhiji and the non-violent movement had a glorious role in our freedom struggle, it is equally true that revolutionaries and the revolutionary movement of Netaji and the INA had no less contribution in our freedom struggle. It was for this crime that this committee was scuttled, and after a few years, another history committee was constituted with a few "yesmen" so that the history could be written -- what I shall say -- as was suggested, as was dictated.

Extracted from Samar Guha\\'s maiden speech in the Lok Sabha on April 3, 1967.

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