Sons of India obliterated to magnify presence of one family: Modi

New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) The contribution of leaders such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, B.R. Ambedkar and Sardar Patel have been obliterated in mainstream Indian discourse to magnify the presence of one family, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday.

As he laid the foundation stone of a museum dedicated to the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army), Modi recalled that in remembering his Cambridge days, Bose, who had founded the Azad Hind Fauj, wrote that: "Indians are taught that Europe is a bigger picture of the Great Britain and because of this our habit is to look at Europe from an English perpective.".

Modi said: "It has been our misfortune that even after independence, those who laid the foundation of India and our system, looked at India from an English spectacle. Our heritage, culture, education system, our curriculum have all suffered from this.

"Today I can say this with certainty that if our nation was guided by the likes of Subhas Bose and Sardar Patel, if it was not looked at from a foreign perspective, then the situation of the country would be much different. It is sad that just to magnify the presence of one family, sons of India — Patel, Ambedkar and Bose — have been obliterated from our national discourse."

The Prime Minister maintained that his government was changing this.

The country’s overall development was an important aspect of Bose’s vision and the NDA government was going in the direction as envisioned by Bose, he said.

Modi was speaking at the Red Fort, where in a departure from protocol, he hoisted the national flag to mark the commemoration of the 75 years of the establishment of the Azad Hind Sarkar, the government of "free India".

The Azad Hind government was raised by Bose during the freedom movement.

Traditionally, the Prime Minister hoists the national flag at the Red Fort on Independence Day, and in a first he did so on Sunday because soldiers of the Indian National Army faced trails by the British at Red Fort.