Anita Bose said, “Both of them [Netaji and Gandhi] were great heroes who fought for India’s Independence. One could not have done without the other.”
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter, Anita Bose Pfaff, on Wednesday, November 17, said that her father and Mahatma Gandhi had a difficult relationship as Gandhi felt that he could not control Netaji. “On the other hand, my father was a great admirer of Gandhi,” Anita Bose Pfaff said.
Her comments came in response to a question from India Today TV on actor Kangana Ranaut’s comment that Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were ready to hand Netaji over to the British.
Anita said, “Both of them [Netaji and Gandhi] were great heroes who fought for India’s Independence. One could not have done without the other. It was a combination. It’s not like what some Congress members tried to claim for a long time — that only a non-violent policy was responsible for India’s Independence. We all know that Netaji and INA’s [Indian National Army] actions, too, contributed to India’s freedom.”
“On the other hand, it would be nonsensical to claim that only Netaji and the INA, brought about India’s Independence. Gandhi inspired many, including Netaji,” she added.
Anita further said: “Millions of people contributed to India’s independence.”
Kangana Ranaut on Tuesday claimed in a series of Instagram stories that Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh got no support from Mahatma Gandhi and went on to mock his mantra of ahimsa or non-violence by saying that offering another cheek gets you “bheek” not freedom.
In making the “bheek” comment, Ranaut wound the clock back to last week when she described India’s Independence as “bheek“, or alms, and declared that freedom came in 2014 when the Narendra Modi-led government came to power.
In her Instagram stories, Ranaut targeted Mahatma Gandhi and said “choose your heroes wisely”.
Anita said it was naïve to take a one-sided view of Independence when asked about Kangana’s statement that Independence was secured only in 2014 and not in 1947.
