Rich Tribute paid to Netaji and Veer Surendra Sai

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led people of Odisha to pay rich tribute to freedom fighters and nation’s heroes, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Veer Surendra Sai, who share common birthday on January 23 today. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s 118th birth anniversary was celebrated across Odisha.

The Odisha CM offered floral tribute to Veer Surendra Sai’s statue inside the Odisha Legislative Assembly premises on the auspicious occasion of his 206th birth anniversary. He was accompanied by I&PR Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh and Bhubaneswar North MLA Priyadarshi Mishra among others.

After paying tribute to Surendra Sai, the CM proceeded to Cuttack, the birth place of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and paid homage at the Janakinath Bhawan where Netaji was born on January 23, 1897. Several functions were organised to pay homage both Subhash Chandra Bose and Veer Surendra Sai across the state.

Bose had been a leader of the younger, radical, wing of the Indian National Congress in the late 1920s and 1930s, rising to become Congress President in 1938 and 1939. He later founded Azad Hind Fauz and fought against the British Army. He “died” under mysterious circumstances on August 18, 1945. However, there is no evidence to suggest that he died on that day in a plane crash, as reported by Japanese newspapers first.

Veer Surendra Sai was an Indian freedom fighter who sacrificed his life fighting against the British and died in obscurity. Surendra Sai has a demi-god status in Western Odisha region. He was born on 23rd January 1809 at Khinda, Sambalpur, Odisha. He breathed his last at Asirgarh Jail on 28 February 1884.

Surendra Sai began protesting the British at the age of 18 in 1827, moved operations to the hilly tracts of Western Odisha in 1857 and continued until he surrendered in 1862 and went to Hazaribagh Jail. Before his surrender, he spent 17 years in prison and after his final arrest served a term of 20 years including his detention of 19 years in the remote Asirgarh hill fort where he died.