Haryana state BJP chief Om Prakash Dhankar. (Express Photo)More than a month after farmers ended their agitation against the three farm laws, the ruling BJP has planned to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on January 23 at large scale in Haryana.
The leaders of BJP and its alliance partner, the JJP of Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, had faced farmer protests at several places during the year-long agitation against the farm laws.
Now, BJP leaders have intensified its organisational activities. Haryana BJP president Om Prakash Dhankar has already held meetings of party workers and local leaders in almost all parts of the state in connection with the celebrations of Subhash Chandra Bose’s birth anniversary.
Dhankar told The Indian Express: “The soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj and other citizens had sung songs for Bose to welcome him in Singapore from April 1-3 in 1943. Two of these songs will be sung in every village panchayat and ward of municipalities of Haryana on January 23 to observe his birth anniversary as “Parakram Diwas”.”
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Dhankar said that as many as 75 BJP workers will gather at every place to celebrate Bose’s birth anniversary at 7,500 places in Haryana claiming as many as six lakh party workers will participate in these events. According to Dhankar, as many as 2,715 soldiers of Azad Hind Fauj of Bose were from Haryana.
“As many as 106 officers and 580 jawans were from Gurgaon district while 873 persons from Rohtak were part of Azad Hind Fauj,” says Dhankar, a former Cabinet minister of Haryana who earlier also headed BJP Kisan Morcha. In the meetings of BJP workers, Dhankar blames Congress for limiting the credit of freedom struggle to it only adding “the BJP wants credit to every freedom fighter whose contribution was forgotten till now”.
Even when the farmer agitation was going on, the saffron party had organised ‘Tiranga Yatras’ in Haryana ahead of Independence Day in 2021 aimed at creating a passion for patriotism among youths. The farmers had protested several functions of BJP and JJP leaders as part of their agitation but had avoided opposing “Tiranga Yatras”. The BKU led by Gurnam Singh Chaduni even had undertaken its own “Tiranga Yatras”.
The BJP leaders claim they did not stop their organisational activities at any stage, even during the farmer agitation. Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister J P Dalal had earlier stated that a wrong perception was created that the farmers were against the saffron party claiming that “the participation of a large number of farmers in BJP’s Tiranga Yatra had shown the farmers trust the policies of BJP”.
As part of its organisational activities, BJP’s ally JJP too had held a rally in Jhajjar last month to mark its third foundation day.
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