Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) appreciates President of India, Ram Nath Kovind for honoring personally a group of INA (Indian National Army/ Azad Hind Fauj) veterans during his recent visit to Myanmar and continues its old demand to preserve all historical ruins related to India’s freedom struggles in the neighbouring country.
It may be noted that President Kovind in his 10-14 December Myanmar visit felicitated nine surviving INA veterans, now living in Yangon, oldest one among them was KA Perumal, who is around 90 years old. It is for the first time, Union government in New Delhi has taken an initiative to honour those non-resident INA veterans.
The Assam based nationalist forum earlier appealed to the Head of the State for pursuing his counterpart U Win Myint in NayPyiTaw and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi to preserve all monuments relating to the glorious freedom movement including the INA headquarter in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) city.
“Myanmar (earlier Burma) played an important role in our freedom movement as many legendary Indian leaders either took shelter or imprisoned in the southeast Asian country by the British colonial administration,” said a PPFA statement adding that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose later shifted the INA headquarter from Singapore to Rangoon and fought against the imperialist forces with his 40,000 valiant soldiers from the soil of Burma.
The PPFA however expressed apprehensions that the rampant construction activities in various parts of Myanmar might have destroyed most of the historical ruins including the INA building in Yangon. So it urges the Union government to continue pursuing with Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, whose father General Aung San was a close friend of Netaji Subhas, for her personal initiative to preserve those Indian heritages.
