The vilification of Bose by the Western elite, reeks of confirmation bias and politicisation of history. Any objective assessment of the move to install the icon’s statue would recognise it as a long overdue political recognition
The hologram statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate. PTI
It seems the prime minister’s decision to install at India Gate a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose — a key anti-imperialist figure and a giant of India’s movement for Independence from British Raj — has triggered western commentators more than Bose’s own countrymen. Unlike in the West where the narrative on Bose is steeped in moral duplicity, he is a venerated figure in India and especially in West Bengal, where Bose is a tragic hero who was denied due appreciation owing to petty factionalism in Congress party.
While Indians have applauded the move and welcomed the belated political recognition of one of India’s favourite sons, with some states going for competitive displays of veneration, some western scholars and commentators have called Narendra Modi a “textbook fascist” for reinstating Bose and accused him of “going too far”.
Among the pontificating pundits is one Edward Luce of London-based Financial Times who called Bose “an admirer of Hitler and a pawn of the Axis powers” and his proposed statue the “latest exhibit of Modi’s fascist ideology.”