Communists have given Netaji Subhas Bose the respect and the recognition he commanded, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said at a ceremony held here to mark Netaji’s 113th birth anniversary.
Mr. Bhattacharjee garlanded Netaji’s statue on this occasion.
Correcting assessment
The Chief Minister said the patriotism of Netaji was above question. Communists had corrected their earlier evaluation and assessment of him.
Netaji’s strategy during the Second World War was different and the party had erred in its initial evaluation and assessment of the great leader, he said.
Mr. Bhattacharjee said he was extending his full support to a demand made by four left parties — the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) - that January 23 be declared as “patriotism day.”
Leaders’ appeal
Leaders of these parties had jointly written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard.
The appeal, which was signed by Prakash Karat, A.B. Bardhan, Debabrata Biswas and T.J. Chandrachudan, general secretaries of the CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and the RSP respectively, regretted that although this decision was announced in 1996 by the then Prime Minister, it had not been implemented as yet.
