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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Saturday said that India wouldn’t have been partitioned if Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was there at that time.
Delivering the first Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Memorial lecture in the national capital, Doval said there were very few parallels to the “genius” of Subhas Bose.
“I am not saying good or bad but there are very few parallels in the Indian history or the global history of people who had the audacity to sail against the current — and not an easy current the current of the British empire,” Doval said.
The NSA pointed out that Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah had said that he could accept only one leader and that is Subhas Chandra Bose.
“The idea has come to his mind that I will fight for freedom and I will not don’t beg for freedom because it’s my right and if I beg it will be conditional. India would not have been partitioned if Subhas Bose was alive, Jinhah said I can accept only one leader that is Subhas Bose,” said Ajit Doval.
“His leadership was of a different style”, said Doval recalling that Bose had emphasised that “India was a reality, India is a reality and India will be a reality.”
“Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose) said I will not comprise for anything less than full independence and freedom. He said that he not only wants to free this country from political subjugation but there is a need to change the political, social and cultural mindset of the people and they should feel like free birds in the sky,” the NSA said.
The NSA, further said that history has been unkind to Bose while adding that he was happy that Prime Narendra Modi is somebody who has been very keen to resurrect it.
Doval said that Subhas Chandra Bose’s legacy was unparalleled and his audacity, and tenacity were the two qualities that were unmatchable. The NSA said that Bose’s leadership was of a different style was the only one who was audacious enough to challenge Mahatma Gandhi and refused to beg for freedom from the British.”
“The thing which Subhas Bose has different from other leaders is audacity, he was a very audacious person and that can be seen when he was in Presidency college. He had the audacity to challenge Mahatma Gandhi when Gandhi was at his prime. When he resigned from Congress, he started his struggle afresh and was jailed and while in detention he thought let me escape from India that too in an attire of an Afghan,” added Doval further.
“Getting into the attire of an Afghan was difficult for a Bengali to do, he left for Kabul and then goes to Russia, goes to Germany where he meets Hitler…. He then comes to Japan and then to Singapore and then forms the Indian National Army,” Doval said.
“Look at his courage…. The real force of might of conviction will really able to catapult you into positions where nobody can think of it,” Doval said.
By and large, Doval said, that Netaji was a lonely person, and except for Japan he had no other country supporting him.
Doval said that when former British Prime Minister Clement Atlee came to India in 1956 and was asked by the then Calcutta Governor why the British had agreed to Independence in 1947 when there was no pressure to vacate, Atlee said that it was because of Netaji.
“He (Atlee) said that even though Netaji was thought to have died in 1945 in a plane crash in Taipei, even after his death they were afraid of the ideas of nationalism that (Netaji ) had created, many Indians would have gone down that path,” Doval said.
Delivering the lecture organised by the Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) in India, Doval also called on Indian business to focus on preparing a skilled workforce and bringing in technological innovation to make its workforce globally competitive.
