SHOW NOT A CANDLE TO THE SUN
Whatever may be said, India still does not give due respect to Netaji. And this mainly comes from the intelligentsia, I should say. To call Netaji a legendary freedom fighter on a renowned television channel in all good intent even is to sell him short. One never uses such epithets to describe Gandhiji or Pandit Nehru. Is not Netaji a name that is beyond such definitions? Or, is he being introduced to the nation afresh, as if Indians do not know him to be who he is and what he was?
The people know Netaji better than what these mockery of media moderators know him to be or even care to know. We do not say thus, "Oh, the golden sun has risen in the east !" Do we? Then why this stupid introduction of Netaji to the nation? Just say 'Netaji' like you say 'Mahatma Gandhi' or 'Pandit Nehru', and no more. Such understatement will be appropriate in its very brevity, for the very name 'Netaji' is self-expressive and does not need a modern moderator to mediate on its behalf and hold it aloft.
In defining Netaji you limit him ; in attaching unnecessary introductory epithets you patronise him. The sun is self-luminous and needs no candle to make it visible. So does Netaji. Just remove the cover from your eyes and look out. You will see Netaji shining like the broad daylight, pulsating in every cell of national life.
India is vibrating with Netaji. Now, O intelligentsia, it is time for you to vibrate to Netaji as well, high time, indeed !
Written by Sugata Bose
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