My dear countrymen and friends across the globe,
This Petition is crucial to us who are working for the rewriting of the correct narrative of the freedom movement and for the resurrection of the heroes of the armed struggle for freedom from oblivion imposed on them by the perfidious powers that be. Our motherland will only then rise to eminence and strength again when these valiant soldiers of the soul are duly honoured and their lives laid before the citizens for them to stand in awe of their supreme sacrifice for the liberation of their motherland. It is, thus, imperative that everyone should come forward, casting aside petty differences of opinion and individual stance, and sign this Petition for the larger good of our country.
Is there any doubt in anybody's mind that these three preeminent revolutionaries supremely deserve the Bharat Ratna? I can anticipate the objection in the minds of many ardent devotees and followers who will posit the view that these liberators of our motherland were far above the reach of any accolade or decoration that free India can possibly offer them, for they were the makers of free India. They will say that the Government of India ought to first award the Bharat Ratna to Mahatma Gandhi before contemplating awarding it to Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin. And they have a point at that. There can no reason for making Gandhi so sacrosanct a personality that he cannot be given the Bharat Ratna. After all, is Gandhi greater than Bharatvarsha that his status will be lowered by offering him the nation's highest civilian award? Certainly not. This sort of deification of a freedom fighter or whosoever of however exalted a status is contrary to the basic tenets of democracy upon which stands the edifice of free India, and it is this sort of attitude that fosters the dynastic dispensations Indians are so vociferously against, apparently. Thus, applying a like logic, there ought to be in principle no opposition to the trio of Rash Behari, Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin receiving free India's highest honour.
Pursuing the earlier line of thinking, if this means that Gandhi must be awarded the Bharat Ratna first before the resistors of the Petition withdraw their stated opposition, it will sadly be a blow to the movement. To award Gandhi the Bharat Ratna atop all the honours and accolades he regularly receives on an official basis from the Government of India will be to feed a fully-fed person while starving people die for want of food. Instead, we, as responsible citizens, must stop deifying Gandhi and bring him down from his supposed superhuman status to face our unbiased and impartial scrutiny as to his contributions to the freedom movement. Thus shall we do a better service to the nation by an objective analysis of Gandhi instead of this negative clamouring for awarding him the Bharat Ratna which will serve no purpose of ours but will surely further delay the dispensation of justice to our heroes. After all, did the awarding of the Bharat Ratna to Nehru do any good to the cause of our heroes? It did not. So, we should not bother our heads anymore about Gandhi's receiving the Bharat Ratna which, for their purposes of maintenance of the soon-to-crumble supposed superhuman status of the supposed Mahatma, the Government will never accede to.
The Bharat Ratna, if awarded to Rash Behari Bose, Masterda Surya Sen and Bagha Jatin, will bring the limelight back on them, focus national and international attention on the trio which will enthuse our countrymen and kindred souls across the world to take up the study of their lives and profit thereby. For us there will be the great gain of at last getting three perfect patriots to guide and inspire us in our national life after the seven decades of sufferance at the hands of leaders who have virtually sold our best interests for their private gain. The resurrection of the trio will set in a domino effect in bringing to the fore all other revolutionaries who have literally been wiped out of the national narrative post-independence. And this will be the great gain from the success of the project our Petition attempts to serve.
In conclusion, therefore, I exhort all to cast aside differences and combine forces for the victory of our stated objective as enunciated in the Petition for Bharat Ratna for the three leading lights of the armed struggle for freedom.
Thanking you,
I remain ever yours in the motherland,
Sugata Bose.
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