Subhas Chandra Bose

New Delhi, Jan. 11: The Bengal government plans to celebrate Subhas Chandra Bose’s birthday as “Desh Prem Divas” every year from this January 23, officially honouring a man the communists had once called a “quisling”, the Forward Bloc said today.

Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas told The Telegraph the state government would soon issue a gazette notification about this, but senior bureaucrats in Calcutta said they were not aware of any such move.

Biswas indicated that the Bloc had to put “a lot of pressure” on the Bengal government. Sources said the purported decision could be the CPM’s way of appeasing its ally, whom it is trying to persuade to accept fewer seats in the summer elections.

The Left Front government used to observe Bose’s birthday in collaboration with the Netaji centenary committee. “Doing lip service is different from giving it an official stamp,” Biswas said.

He sidestepped the question why such a step could not be taken in the past 34 years of Left rule in Bengal. “Everything has its time,” he said.

The undivided CPI had denounced Bose as an “imperialist agent” and “Tojo’s dog” (referring to Hediki Tojo, Japan’s Prime Minister during World War II), although CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu had later apologised for the “mistake” and declared Bose a patriot.

In Calcutta, the special secretary for information and cultural affairs, Niloy Ghosh, said he was not aware of any such move. “However, you may ask the finance department,” he said.

The principal secretary, finance, C.M. Bachawat, said: “I do not know of any such notification.... However, the information department may be aware of this.”

Biswas insisted the announcement would be made “in due course”. He said the Bengal government would celebrate January 23 at all the district headquarters and hold a big programme in Calcutta.

“A seven-day special seminar would be organised on Netaji’s thoughts on various subjects, like the economy. Big, colourful posters and literature related to Netaji would be released and light-and-sound programmes will be held,” he said.

The CPM and the CPI had recently joined allies RSP and the Bloc in asking the Centre to declare Netaji’s birthday as Desh Prem Divas (Patriotism Day). Delhi had rejected the demand, arguing that accepting it would lead to a flood of similar demands in the name of other freedom fighters.

Biswas said efforts were on to get more states to declare January 23 as Desh Prem Divas and put pressure on the Centre. The Bloc has decided to hold dharnas across the country on January 12 and 13 to press the demand.

Biswas said he had written to all the chief ministers and party chiefs to get other states to follow Bengal. “Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has declared January 23 as Desh Prem Divas and also written to the Prime Minister in support of our demand. Now we want him to issue a gazette notification to put pressure on the Centre,” he said.

Asked why the communists had denounced Bose in the past, Biswas said they had apologised for it long ago.

“None other than comrade Jyoti Basu acknowledged sometime in 1978 that the communists’ assessment of Netaji’s role was mistaken. They have realised their mistake,” he said.

Biswas explained that the communists had castigated Netaji as he had taken help from Hitler’s Germany, a country that had fought the then Soviet Union. “They later realised that Netaji had taken Germany’s help for the motherland.”

Last May, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan too had apologised. At an event organised by the Bloc, he had said: “It was a mistake on the part of the undivided Communist Party of India not to have recognised Netaji’s indomitable spirit of patriotism.”

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, who was at the event, did not refer to a “mistake” but praised Bose and demanded that the Centre declare his birthday as Desh Prem Divas.