Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose never visited Manipur. He seems to have now, 78 years after members of his Indian National Army (INA) hoisted the Tricolour at Moirang during the peak of the World War II.
Among those who hoisted the flag on April 14, 1944, was Mairembam Koireng Singh, a local member of the INA. He went on to become Manipur’s first Chief Minister in 1963.
His grandson is Mairembam Prithviraj Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Moirang Assembly seat. He had won the seat as a Congress candidate in 2012 but lost it to the BJP’s Pukhram Sharatchandra Singh, a former IAS officer.
The latter is now the Congress candidate.
Mr. Prithviraj believes the BJP’s bid to give Netaji his due would stand him in good stead.
“Local issues matter the most in Manipur elections. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seriousness in bringing Netaji’s legacy to the people of the country will definitely be an advantage for the BJP,” he told The Hindu.
He said he had tried in vain to pursue several projects on Netaji while he was in Congress. “The BJP is telling the Netaji story in a new light, as is evident from the decision to install his statue at India Gate and the speed with which the INA headquarters [at Moirang Kongjengbam Leikai] is being developed into a historical tourist site,” he said.
Mr. Sharatchandra said it is convenient to blame the Congress for all ills, including the alleged failure to recognise Netaji, to divert attention from the lack of development and absence of secularism.
“The negligence of Loktak Lake, crying for sustainable development, is an example,” he said.
The lake straddles Moirang and Thanga, one of six Assembly adjoining constituencies where the INA had left an imprint fighting alongside the Japanese Army against the British Army in the battles of Imphal and Kohima. Some 70,000 INA and Japanese soldiers had died in the two battles, together the only theatre of WW2 in South Asia.
The third contestant from Moirang, Thongam Shanti Singh of the National People’s Party is expected to challenge both his BJP and Congress rivals. But the battle of the ballot is said to be reflected in two installations, about 50 metres apart, at the INA Martyrs’ Memorial Complex in Moirang.
One is the replica of the INA memorial in Singapore that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had unveiled on September 23, 1969. The other is a billboard — a few months old — on Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav carrying the distinct BJP stamp.
