Date:09/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/09/stories/2008040961620300.htm

New Delhi

BJP launches celebration of First War of Independence

Staff Reporter

Advani distributes urns filled with earth from Red Fort grounds to party workers

NEW DELHI: With just about a year left for the general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday launched a month-long celebration of 150 years of the country’s First War of Independence.

The festivities were literally kick-started at the BJP headquarters here on Ashoka Road with party general secretary Arun Jaitley and Member of Parliament Vijay Kumar Malhotra flagging off 1,857 motorcyclists, most of whom were riding without helmets and attired in shirts printed with reminders of the historic Independence struggle. Organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the rally of bikers motored its way to the Parade Ground near the historic Red Fort for a commemorative cultural function that was attended by senior leaders of the party.

Addressing the gathering, senior BJP leader L. K. Advani said even though most functions were organised with an ulterior political intent, this one was closest to the party’s ideology of nationalism. “I was born in the pre-Independence era and soon after I joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, I was obsessed with the notion of freeing the country form the shackles of colonial rule,” he said. Mr. Advani said he owed his ideological beliefs to Veer Savarkar’s monumental book, “The First War of Independence”, and it was indeed laudable that someone had proposed that the martyr’s portrait be put up in Parliament.

Mr. Advani also distributed clay urns filled with earth from the Red Fort grounds to party workers from all over the country. Party president Rajnath Singh said this was the first time that a youth organisation had come forward to organise a commemorative function of the First War of Independence. “Though this landmark event was dubbed “Sepoy Mutiny” by sections of the Press, Karl Marx described it as the first freedom struggle of India in one of his articles. It was a struggle for political, economic and cultural freedom. Sixty years after acquiring the former, India is still struggling to achieve the latter two,” he added.

Senior party leader Sushma Swaraj elaborated on the magnitude of the events planned across the country. “Today we are laying the foundation stone of the celebrations to follow.”

Among other BJP leaders present on the occasion were former Union Minister Vijay Goel, Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan and Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra. The festivities will culminate in a grand function on May 10, the 150th anniversary of the historic First War of Independence.