Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the community which has not preserved its own history, could not protect its geography as well. 

Paying glowing tributes to lok Manya Bal Gangadhar Tilak on the occasion of 101 years of Tilak’s famous declaration `Freedom is my birth right and I shall have it’, the CM said that Tilak’s role in freedom movement had no parallels.  

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and UP Governor Ram Naik and descendents of the freedom fighter also attended a function organized by the state government in the memory of Tilak in lucknow on Saturday.

On this occasion, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also felicitated Tilak’s great granddaughter-in-law and Mayor of Pune Mukta Tilak.

Eulogizing  freedom fighters, Yogi said, ``The idea of India as conceived by freedom fighters had no place for casteism, regionalism and illiteracy. Their idea of freedom implied the right to take decisions within the framework of Indian constitution.’’

Referring to `Gita Rahasya’ written by Tilak, the Chief Minister said that with his book, Tilak had given a spiritual dimension to the freedom movement.  

``Tilak had written this book while lodged at Mandalay jail in Burma. The great leader had also laid the foundation of  Ganesh Chaturthi and Shivaji Utsav for integration of the society. In fact, he fought for restoration of Swadeshi and indigenous values all his life,’’ he said. 

Reminding the people about Tilak’s contribution, the CM urged the people to adopt positive attitude and shun negativity as it sapped one’s energy and blunted people’s resolve to pursue ideals in life.  

``There should be no place for negativity in one’s life as this trait hinders the path of moving ahead in life. If India has to move forward as a great nation state, then we will have to pursue the path of positivity shown by our national heroes and freedom fighters,’’ said Yogi. 

Emphasising the need  for the people to study contribution of freedom fighters in shaping the present day India, Yogi said, “The meaning of freedom of India from British rule can be understood from the famous declaration by Gangadhar Tilak  that freedom is my birthright.”

Yogi Adityanath informed that for realising the Prime Minister’s dream of `Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat’, UP and Maharashtra governments have signed an MOU for cultural exchange. He said  that cultural groups from both states would participate in `Uttar Pradesh Diwas’ to be organized in lucknow on January 24.  

Addressing the function, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “We must draw inspirations from our history   and also apprise the present generation of the contribution made by great people in fighting British rule and ensuring freedom of India. Both Maharashtra and UP share old ties and the people of UP have played an important role in development of Maharashtra.”

Governor Ram Naik said that Tilak’s declaration `Freedom is my birth right… ‘  gave a new direction to the freedom struggle. ``It was like the roar of a lion which galvanized the whole country against British rule  and helped freedom fighters to recover from depression caused by the setback in the first freedom struggle of 1857,” said Naik.

Descendents of freedom fighters like Mangal Pandey, Tatya Tope, Bahadur Shah Jafar, lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar, Ashfaq Ullah Khan,  Chandrasekhar Azad, Thakur Roshan Singh, Ram Krishna Khatri, Sachindra Nath Bakshi etc participated in the function.