January 23, 2020
Netaji fought for a secular, united India: Mamata Banerjee
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressed a rally in Darjeeling today on the occasion of the 123rd birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Highlights of her speech:
Netaji stayed in Kurseong for a long time. That is why we celebrate his birthday in the Hills. After coming to power, I decided to inaugurate four celebrations in the Hills and one in Kolkata, every five years.
We are proud of Netaji’s Indian National Army. Many Gorkhas had joined the fight for freedom with Netaji.
We have to remember Netaji’s words today. He believed in secularism and the unity of all religions.
In 1940 in his speech in Jhargram, he opposed the Hindu Mahasabha.
Hinduism is universal. People of all other religions are being driven out in the name of Hindu religion; thus they are insulting Hinduism.
Should we not respect other religions as Hindus? Don’t we celebrate their festivals too?
A leader is one who runs a country peacefully. A successful leader walks shoulder to shoulder with the people of all religions and castes.
We have announced a holiday in our State on the occasion of Netaji’s birthday. We have been requesting the Central Government to make it a national holiday for so long, but they are not listening to us.
After coming to power they reopened Netaji’s files but his death is still a mystery. It is a shame that we still don’t know how and when Netaji died.
Netaji said, “Give me blood, I will give you freedom”. Now they are taking the blood of the people by killing them.
They are trying to snatch citizenship from us by imposing NRC, NPR and CAA. But we will not be scared.
We want development and betterment of the Hills.
We will not let them to drive away a single person. We will live here together.
Netaji said he condemns those who want to divide people in the name of Hinduism. People of all religions will stay together. This should be our way to show respect to Netaji.
