As India approaches 71st Independence Day, a patriotic forum based in the Northeast, appeals to citizens of the region irrespective of their caste, creed and religious backgrounds to hoist the National flag on 15th August and pay respect to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives to make India a sovereign nation.
“Irrespective of who we are, how we come to become part of the Indian Union, it is our bounden duty to pay respect to them who laid down their lives to free us all from the clutches of British colonial forces ” said a statement issued by Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) to media outlets.
This appeal has been sent without any prejudice whatsoever and without any disrespect to any individual or groups that have been fighting a battle of identity and self-determination, but is a reminder that we must not forget our common history, when we stood together to fight our battle for freedom, it added.
The PPFA feels that if we, who are composed of millions of individuals and organizations, keep demanding for our ‘rights’ to be given special concessions like reservation quota, grants, special area development funds and other forms of sociopolitical and economic advantages from New Delhi, would acknowledge the fact that if not for the martyrs we are not demanding these rights.
The likes of Moje Riba, Matmur Jamoh, Kushal Konwar, Tilak Deka, Bhogeswari Phukanani, Kanaklata Barua, Mukunda Kakati, Nidhanu Rajbangshi, Kamala Miri, Lerela Boro, Madan Rauta, Hemoram Patar, Gunabhi Bordoloi, Sambhudan Phonglo, Beer Tikendrajit Singh, Paona Brajabashi, Tirot Singh, Shoorvir Pasaltha Khuangchera, Rani Gaidinliu, Jitendra Chandra Paul etc of our region, who fought selflessly against the exploitative and abusive imperial power that ruled undivided India, must not be forgotten.
Their sacrifices will keep reminding us that while we all have our own identities and fight our own struggles with the establishment that governs, we must stand together to thwart all imperialist designs which would only divide us and lead us all towards destruction. Our social-ethnic fabric is rich with history and stories of bravery, which have all played a significant part in shaping our present.
Therefore, without any contraction, we must exercise our rational thinking first and pay our respects to the freedom fighter by saluting the Tricolour. If they could fight the freedom battle under the flag, there is no reason why we who have been repeatedly demanding our rights from the different governments that came to power in New Delhi after independence, should not do the same.
Thus it is our fervent appeal that on the forthcoming I-Day, we should pay homage to the known & unknown martyrs of India’s freedom struggle, who finally gave us the freedom, endorsed by Rupam Barua, Bidhayak Das, Jagadindra Raichoudhury, Anup Sarma, Pramod Kalita, DN Singh, Dhiraj Goswami, Manoj Khandelwal, Dipson Baruah, Ghameswar Kalita, Bimal Ghosh, Kamal Krishna Das, Bitupan Dutta, Sumir Karmakar, Sanjiv Prakash, Sabyasachi Sharma, Deepak Parvatiyar, Kamal Kumar Medhi, Prarthana Hazarika, Namrata Datta, Soumyadeep Dutta, Dipankar Baruah, Samya Bharadwaj, Kumarjit Sarma, Debojit Kotoky, Anu Boro, Monalisa Mahanta, Anjana Dutta, Anjanil Kashyap, Dibya Barthakur, Bikash Kumar Das, Neentu Pathak etc.
