Subhash Chandra Bose no 'icon' for UPA Govt
Wed,
Jan 23 02:05 PM
New Delhi: On January 23, 2008, India will celebrate the
111th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose but the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government seems to have had forgotten him.
The
Congress has always been uncomfortable with Subhash Chandra Bose's call for a
march to Delhi. So, till last year, the entire Manmohan Singh Cabinet had
forgotten to salute him.
Despite being so secretive about information on
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, it's indeed surprising that the government which has
spent more than Rs 200 crore in a year on advertisements of eminent Indian
personalities does not consider Netaji worthy enough to be on the list.
From
January 2006 to January 2007, the UPA government has spent Rs 109 crores on
bringing out advertisements in newspapers while Rs 100 crore was spent in
television advertisements.
However, not a single rupee was spent to spread
the message of Netaji, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has replied in
an RTI query.
Interestingly, the ministry is under Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who
is from Netaji's home state West Bengal.
"Perhaps the person who has
contributed the most to get independence is completely forgotten by our
government," Devashish Bhattacharya, an RTI activist, says.
To add insult to
injury the government refuses to give Netaji the title of the country's first
commander-in-chief.
Netaji's Indian National Army was the first to raise
the Indian national flag on Indian soil almost three years before the nation
achieved independence.
[
http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiabroadcast/20080123/r_t_ibn_nl_general/tnl-subhash-chandra-bose-no-icon-for-upa-3a4f8c1.html
]
www.missionnetaji.org