Sir — January 21 is the 73rd death anniversary of the great Indian revolutionary Rashbehari Bose. Not only did he sacrifice his career and endanger his life for the sake of liberating India from the British imperialists by playing a major role in the Ghadar revolution; Bose also left his motherland forever to carry on the freedom struggle from distant Japan. Not to forget that it was Bose who sowed the seeds of Netaji’s Indian National Army by forming the Indian Independence league.
Bose’s unique struggle was not meant for the cause of Japan. Yet the Japanese had appreciated the bravery, selflessness and devotion of Bose and decorated him with ‘second order of the Merit of the rising sun’ — the highest honour for a foreign civilian. But the country, for whose independence Bose had devoted his entire life, has consciously consigned him to oblivion.
A ‘reward’ indeed for the legendary Rashbehari Bose! His birth and death anniversary comes and goes through decades, but the ‘tradition’ of Himalayan indifference and negligence towards the deeds, sacrifice and memories of Bose are indeed ‘burning bright’ in independent India! Actually Bose is nothing but a ‘tragic hero’ in independent India just because he is ‘nobody’s child’. It is a disgrace to note the supreme callousness of the concerned authorities which has led to such scandalous indifference towards the memory Bose.