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Jyoti Basu had owned up the communist blunder. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday took it forward by publicly apologising for the blemish communists had put on Netaji. Saluting the Netaji statue at Red Road, Bhattacharjee saw in Netaji a great freedom fighter, though he was a "quisling" to his predecessors during the Second World War.
Marxists now need his secular ideals to combat the saffron challenge. "Netaji never compromised with communal forces. He always stood firm for amity," the Chief Minister said in a bid to foil the RSS-VHP game plan to showcase Netaji. The CPI(M) has recently fallen back on other cultural and social reformers such as Sri Ramkrishana, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Chaitanya.
However, the Chief Minister didn't forget to mention his political difference with Netaji's ways. "We still disagree over Netaji's role when he planned to align with countries like Germany, Italy and Japan to make our country free," Bhattacharjee said.
The Forward Bloc has welcomed the Chief Minister's candid confession. "We are happy that the Chief Minister has apologised for underrating Netaji's role in the country's freedom struggle and his formation of the Indian National Army," Bloc state secretary Asoke Ghosh said.
The Chief Minister went back to Centre-bashing for letting down the great hero for so long. "We are unhappy that the Centre has failed to honour the great leader as it has done to others.
Speaking at the Netaji Institute
of Asian Studies, Governor Viren J Shah emphasised on taking Netaji's democratic
and secular ideals to the youth.
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