Son of martyr, he wants govt to recognise all INA soldiers

Ravinder Saini

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Tribune News Service

Rohtak, September 20

The Indian National Army (INA) led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had played a significant role in the freedom movement and its soldiers had sacrificed their lives for the sake of nation but there were many such heroes who were lost in the oblivion.

Shri Bhagwan Phogat, 60, of Dhani Phogat village in Charkhi Dadri has been pulling out all stops for the past eight years to get recognition for such heroes. He claims to have so far identified around 250 such INA soldiers across the state. Besides getting them recognition, his another motive is to ensure “Swatantrata Sainik Samman Pension” for INA soldiers or their widows.

“My father Ram Singh Phogat was also an INA soldier, who participated in the freedom movement. He died in 1996. In 2012, we initiated efforts to find out my father’s association with the INA and visited the National Archives of India, which is a repository of the non-current records and several files pertaining to INA soldiers are also available there,” said Phogat, who currently resides in Rewari city.

He said during the process he learnt about a large number of INA soldiers who were not recognised by the Centre. Thereafter, he took a pledge to get recognition for them and started gathering information about them from their next generation so that they or their widows could avail the benefit of the pension.

“A large number of soldiers of the then British army had joined the INA following the call given by Bose. Many of them attained martyrdom fighting against the British army, while several others had to face physical torture at the hand of the British who deliberately did not give any record to the kin of the martyrs,” he said.

Phogat claimed he had, in the past eight years, identified 250 such INA soldiers and traced their association with the INA in records. All cases had been sent to the state government for the pension, he added.

He has appealed to the kin of the INA soldiers to share unit number and British army name where their forefather worked so that their association with the INA, too, could be traced.