A day after Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reconsidering his decision to exclude Bengal’s tableau on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the Republic Day parade, the legendary freedom fighter’s daughter Anita Pfaff too expressed her concern at how her father’s legacy was only ‘partly exploited’ for political reasons.
Pfaff told an Indian news agency “I have heard about it. I don't know under what circumstances it happened and why the tableau was not included. There might be some reasons. We can't imagine that the Republic Day function in the year when my father would have turned 125 is being held and his tableau was not included, it seems very strange.”
Expressing her astonishment about how celebrations on Netaji was opened with much fanfare last year only to get a subdued response in 2022 she said “and last year, the opening of the anniversary year was celebrated in a bigger way, of all places in Kolkata, (it) had something to do with election and election prospects in Bengal. The fact that nothing happened this year....certainly the issue is not as important as last year.”
Pfaff’s comment came almost in tandem with a second request from none other than senior BJP leader and former Meghalaya Governor Tathagato Roy who too urged the Prime Minister to reconsider his decision.
Roy a former Bengal BJP president wrote in tweet “we have appealed to the Prime Minister to allow the tableau of West Bengal to participate in the Republic Day celebrations. The tableau focuses on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Netaji’s organization, the INA, which undermined the confidence of the British. That’s why the British forced him to leave the country so soon.”
The Chief Minister earlier wrote to the Prime Minister expressing her“profound shock and hurt” by the “abrupt” rejection of the proposed tableau.
She wrote, “the tableau was commemorating the contributions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his INA on his 125th birth anniversary and was carrying the portraits of some of the most illustrious sons and daughters of the country --- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, RabindranathTagore, Swami Vivekananda, Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, Sri Aurobindo, Matangini Hazra, Nazrul, Birsa Munda and many patriots.”She urged the Prime Minster to “reconsider” his decision so as to pay a befitting respect and homage to the freedom fighters of the country.
Subsequently the Trinamool Congress too attacked the BJP Government even as its portal wrote “Ridiculous how the BJP India led Central Government repeatedly & systematically insults our history, culture and pride. By rejecting Netaji’s tableau, they have once again laid bare their hypocrisy. ‘absolutely unpardonable’.
Roy’s tweet was taken as a shot in the arm by the TMC leadership with one of its MPs Shantanu Sen wondering how “the BJP on the one hand tells the country to remember Netaji’s contribution as the pioneer of Indian freedom struggle and on the other it throws out a tableau containing a theme basically on this great freedom fighter.”
The Congress too hit out at the BJP Government and wrote a letter to include the tableau in the Republic Day parade. In a letter written to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Congress Lok Sabha Leader and BengalPradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said, “This is an insult to the people of West Bengal, our cultural heritage and our great hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Netaji is not only the pride of West Bengal, but the entire nation.” Meanwhile, the Bengal BJP evaded response on the issue saying thePrime Minister “the supreme administrator of the country. When thematter is in his eyes, he will be the one to say it best.”
