CM?s Emergency move upsets freedom fighters
CHIEF MINISTER Mulayam Singh Yadav may have won over many hearts by according the status of ?Loktantra Senani? to Emergency heroes, but he has definitely upset freedom fighters.
CHIEF MINISTER Mulayam Singh Yadav may have won over many hearts by according the status of ‘Loktantra Senani’ to Emergency heroes, but he has definitely upset freedom fighters.
The Akhil Bharatiya Swatantrata Senani Uttraadhikari Sangathan (ABSSUS) has decided to handover a memorandum to the CM in protest against the decision during his proposed visit to the city on July 31.
The freedom fighters have expressed resentment over the use of the word ‘Senani’ for political prisoners of the Emergency days.
Vice-president of the ABSSUS Ram Shanker Srivastava dubbed the CM’s decision outrageous. “How can a political prisoner be equated with a freedom fighter? The word ‘Senani’ can only be used for a person who fought for the Independence of the country,” Srivastava said.
The veteran freedom fighter added that the CM’s announcement was an insult to those who laid down their lives or were lodged in prisons for fighting for the country’s Independence.
ABSSUS general secretary Dharam Singh said, “The State Government’s act of not giving any allowance to family members of freedom fighters but paying Rs 500 monthly to the so called Loktantra Senani was not justified”.
The State Government’s move also drew criticism from family members of freedom fighters. Family members of freedom fighters are also likely to demand financial assistance from the CM during his Kanpur trip.
The family members of freedom fighters do not get any financial assistance from the Union or State governments. Only unmarried daughters of freedom fighters get a monthly allowance of Rs 1500 from the Centre. But the son of a freedom fighter is deprived of any such financial assistance.
Talking to Hindustan Times, Kishore Verma, son of late freedom fighter Kedar Nath Verma, said, “Family members of freedom fighters were the immediate sufferers. With their father lodged behind bars there was no one left in the family to look after the children. We are the real political sufferers and not the political prisoners of the Emergency”.
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