On Platinum Jubilee of Azad Hind Govt

Survivors of the Azad Hind Fauj or Indian National Army (INA), Indian armed force veterans and followers of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose plan to raise the Indian flag at the Red Fort on October 21 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Azad Hind Government.

Netaji’s grand-nephew and BJP Bengal vice-president Chandra Kumar Bose and chairman of SNSMT Suparno Satpathy had requested the PM to inaugurate the Azad Hind museum at Red Fort on October 21 and hoist the Tricolor there to commemorate the occasion to which the PM has acceded.

“The record of India needs to be set correct; our first Government came into being on October 21, 1943 and not on August 15, 1947,” said socio-political leader and chairman of SNSMT Suparno Satpathy .

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on October 21, 1943, had established the provincial Azad Hind Government in Singapore. On August 14 the next year, the Bahadur brigade of INA, led by Col Saukat Ali Malik, captured Moirang, a town in Manipur on the Indo-Myanmar border.

Moirang remained under the control of the Azad Hind Government for nearly four months during which its currency and stamps too were used.

The Azad Hind Government had then been recognised by 11 countries and it had its embassies in other countries too.

INA members who are still alive, including Lalti Ram, Jagir Singh, Pramanand, Jag Ram and Ram Gopal, will be among the many other participants. Veterans of Indian armed forces will be led by the highly decorated Maj Gen (Retd) GD Bakshi who has also authored the bestseller book 'Bose or Gandhi Who got India her freedom? '