Salient points in the speech by
Shri L.K. Advani
Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha)

Function to honour Veer Kunwar Singh,
a hero of the First War of Independence in 1857

Mavlankar Hall, Rafi Marg, New Delhi

It is truly an honour to be invited to be the chief guest at a function organised to commemorate the valour of one of the greatest heroes of India’s First War of Independence – Veer Kunwar Singh.

It is exactly on this day, a hundred and fifty years ago, that Veer Kunwar Singh fought his last battle against the British. That battle was fought near Jagdishpur, his birthplace in Bihar. He had completely routed the troops of Captain Le Grand. That victory was the crowning glory of his nearly year-long strug rule in India. However, three days later, on 26 April 1858, Veer Kunwar Singh breathed his last.

Incredible valour

Kunwar Singh was eighty years old when the call of the Motherland motivated him to plunge into the 1857 War of Independence. The first spark of the fire of the uprising was lit by Mangal Pandey. Soon, hundreds of Mangal Pandeys sounded the bugle of revolt in different parts of the country. Kunwar Singh was one of them.

In less than a year, Kunwar Singh’s exploits spread his name far and wide, becoming a source of inspiration for the Indian people and of fear for the foreign rulers. Much as they tried, the enemy troops, with superior arms and ammunition, could not capture this guerilla warrior. Once when he was crossing the River Ganga in a boat, he was hit on his arm by an enemy bullet. Kunwar Singh simply chopped off the arm with his sword, and cast it away in the river as an offering to Maa Ganga.

No wonder, even the enemy could not help admire his heroism. George Trevelyan, a famous British historian, has written: “It was only a matter of chance that during the struggle, Veer Kunwar Singh was eighty years old. Had he been young, the British would have to leave India in 1857.”

I join all of you in bowing my head before the hallowed memory of this great patriot.

My Patriotic Pilgrimage to Jagdishpur

Eleven years ago, during my two-months-long Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra to mark the golden jubilee of India’s Independence in 1997, I journeyed all over the country to pay homage to the martyrs and heroes of India’s Independence. Many of them participated in the struggle that culminated in India winning freedom in 1947. There were others who were the leading lights of 1857. There were still others – like Veer Pandya Kattabomman in Tamil Nadu or Veer Rani Chennamma in Karnataka – who sacrificed their lives in the struggle against British rulers even before 1857.

It was truly the most satisfying of the several yatras that I have undertaken in my life. I have described it as a "Patriotic Pilgrimage" in my autobiography.

This Patriotic Pilgrimage also took me to the “Teerth Sthan” in Jagdishpur, where I paid homage to Veer Kunwar Singh at his birthplace. I must, however, say – and I have recorded this in my book – that I was rather shocked that this great hero’s ancestral house was in a state of utter neglect. Part of it had been converted into a cattleshed.

No less distressing was my experience when, on the outskirts of Sasaram, I went to pay homage to Shaheed Nishan Singh Vaddi, an associate of Veer Kunwar Singh. The British had captured Nishan Singh, placed him at the mouth of a canon and blown him up. In his memory, a library called Nishan Niketan Vachanalaya was set up. But when I went there, I could not see a single cupboard in the library! And its three employees had not been paid their salaries for several months. That was 1997.

I am happy to learn from Shri Nirmal Kumar Singh, president of the Veer Kunwar Singh Foundation, that, thanks to the persistent efforts of his organisation, that there is some progress in the efforts to preserve Veer Kunwar Singh’s legacy. His ancestral house in Jagdishpur should be renovated and converted into a permanent museum. I urge the governments at the Centre and in Bihar to take up this work expeditiously. I also wholeheartedly support the demand that we should have a statue of Veer Kunwar Singh at a prominent place in Delhi.

Promote the spirit of Indianness, transcending caste, creed and regional identities

Friends, on this occasion, I also wish to make three broader points. Firstly, paying homage to the heroes and martyrs of our Freedom Struggle is an occasion to learn an important lesson – namely, we should scrupulously avoid associating them with any particular caste, creed or region. Should we see Veer Kunwar Singh primarily as a Rajput? No. Should only the people of Bihar see him as their hero? No.

Each of the great men and women who fought for India’s Freedom is worthy of being remembered and venerated by the entire country. They belonged to every caste, every religion and every region, but all of them were driven by the common desire to make India free. Keeping this in mind is necessary to strengthen the spirit of united nationalism in successive generations of Indians.

Politics must not colour our attitude towards heroes of the past

Secondly, we should not allow the present-day ideological and political differences amongst us to colour our attitude towards the great personalities of the past. We must remember that people belonging to different schools of thought-and not to any particular ideology or methodology – contributed to the success of India’s Freedom Struggle. Their sacrifices should not be subjected to prejudiced evaluation based on whether or not they are close to “our ideology” or “our rivals’ ideology”. It is the same mindset that has produced the attitude and practice of “political untouchability”

Unfortunately, this has happened in recent times. The most glaring case is that of Veer Savarkar. But we also know how the contributions of Netaji Bose, Sardar Patel, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Bhagat Singh and many others have somehow been belittled. A conscious effort is being made to create an impression that only one family has made sacrifices for India’s freedom and post-freedom reconstruction. Those who are doing so are not only distorting history but also doing grave disservice to the hallowed memory of countless patriots of the past.

My last point is about the way the government conducted the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the 1857 War of Independence. In about a fortnight from now, on May 10, the commemorative year comes to an end. I feel that the year should have been celebrated in a more befitting manner. I am sad to note that the government did not seek the cooperation of opposition parties in this national endeavour.

It is indeed a matter of satisfaction that today’s event has a broadbased character. Representatives of various political parties are here on a common platform. This is how all such programmes should be organised.

Thank you.