A salute to radical nationalists, tribal & women bravehearts: PM Modi | India News

NEW DELHI: If India’s war of independence was won with the efforts and sacrifices of Mahatma Gandhi, Rajendra Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai PatelSyama Prasad Mookerjee and Abul Kalam Azad, Indians also owe a debt of gratitude to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Veer Savarkarwho devoted their life to serving the nation, PM Narendra Modi said in his Independence Day address to the nation.
PM expanding the pantheon of heroes of freedom struggle by not only invoking Savarkar and Mookerjee, but also radical nationalists like Mangal Pandey, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and Ashfaq Ullah Khan.

“Today is an opportunity to pay homage to countless such great men like Dr. Rajendra Prasad ji, Nehru jiSardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Deendayal Upadhyay, Jai Prakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Vinoba Bhave, Nanaji DeshmukhSubramania Bharati who fought the war of independence and built the country after independence,” he said.
Broadening the existing elite circles of heroes of the freedom struggle, Modi also saluted women freedom fighters and tribal leaders whose revolutionary uprisings, he said, lit the first fires of the freedom movement.
From Rani Lakshmibai, Jhalkari Bai, Durga Bhabhi, Rani Gaidinliu, Rani Chennamma, Begum Hazrat Mahal and Velu Nachiyar, who the PM said “showed the mettle of women power of India”, Modi also said Indian freedom struggle will be incomplete without acknowledging and taking pride in the tribal society living in forests.
“There are countless names like Bhagwan Birsa Munda, Sidhu-Kanhu, Alluri Sitarama Raju, Govind Guru, who became the voice of freedom movement,” the PM said.