Bose would be embarrassed to know he was being used to diminish Nehru, Gandhi: Ramachandra Guha | India News

New Delhi: On most issues except non-violence, Subhash Chandra Bose was on the same page as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal. Nehru And it would have been “embarrassing and painful” to know it was being used to belittle the two leaders, the historian claimed. Ramchandra Guha. Speaking at the launch of the third edition of his seminal work “India After Gandhi”. Guha Tuesday noted that it was Bose who called Gandhi the “Father of the Nation” and wondered “how they (the BJP) managed to turn Gandhi, Bose, Nehru and Patel into rivals.” “What?”
“On most things except non-violence, Bose was with Gandhi and Nehru. He would be the first to be alarmed, embarrassed and distressed by what was happening, that Bose was being used to discredit Gandhi and Nehru. What is being done,” said Gandhi’s leading biographer.
The 64-year-old author cited examples of Bose’s respect and admiration for Gandhi, Nehru and vice versa during a free-flowing debate.
For example, he reveals how Bose started the Indian National Army (INA), named his brigade “Gandhi, Nehru and Azad (Chandrasekhar), or how after Bose’s death in 1945 , Gandhi gave a speech in Calcutta, now Kolkata, and saluted his patriotism.
“Even on the question of Congress When Bose resigned from the presidency … he said that if I could not win the confidence of the greatest man in India – he thought Gandhi was – I would not continue as president,” he said. said
Bose, who was appointed as the President of the Indian National Congress (INC) in 1938, resigned from his post in 1939.
For Gandhi’s “confused” critics and those who claim that it was violence that won India freedom, Guha said, it is important to know that every country in Asia and Africa that achieved freedom through violence What is achieved today is “dictatorship”.
“I think Bose is a great patriot, but the idea that he was somehow greater than Gandhi, a substitute for Gandhi… I think you should read Bose himself what he had to say about Gandhi,” he said. Modern historians argue that India
On the Kashmir dispute, Guha said India missed two “unusual opportunities” – one under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the other under Manmohan Singh – to come anywhere close to a just solution due to the “petty party politics” of the opposition. went.
He argued that a sensible democracy should go for a “somewhat bipartisan party” on key questions of foreign policy, with both the Congress and the BJP in opposition in 2003 under Vajpayee and in 2007 when Manmohan Singh was prime minister. had failed as
“Those two rare opportunities were missed and you have to blame first the Congress and then the BJP for putting the interest of a small party over not only the national interest but the prospect of peace in South Asia,” he said. Noted.
First released in 2007 by publishing house Penn Macmillan India, “India After Gandhi” is said to be a magisterial account of the pains, struggles, humiliations and glories of the world’s largest democracy.