By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Gujarat CM Narendra Modi paid tribute to India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his 125 birth anniversary.
In a blog published on November 11, titled “Remembering Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Acharya JB Kripalani on their birth anniversary,” Modi wrote, “We pay tributes to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Acharya JB Kripalani on their 125th birth anniversary. Born in the same year, both these men dedicated a lifetime in service of the nation.”
November 11 is celebrated as the National Education Day to commemorate the anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a great freedom fighter, an eminent educationist and the first Education Minister of India.
Modi adds, “Maulana Abul Kalam Azad needs no introduction. It was as if he was blessed with a revolutionary streak from a young age. In 1912 he started the paper Al-Hilal, which did not hesitate from attacking the colonial rulers. He occupied an important place in the Congress party under Mahatma Gandhi’s guidance, including as the President during the critical years of early and mid-1940s.”
File Photo of Narendra Modi.
He then adds in bold, “He served as India’s first Education Minister and it was under his tenure that the first IIT was inaugurated in Kharagpur. Maulana Azad will also be remembered for his steadfast opposition to partition of India.”
The BJP prime ministerial candidate has been seen making overtures to the Muslims for quite some time now, and that explains praise for Maulana Azad from the man who has some sort of fixation with the first Home Minister Sardar Ballab Bhai Patel.
Aware of raising quite a few eyebrows by his praise, Modi writes, “Much has been made of our efforts to commemorate various historical figures, who have either been completely ignored or have not been adequately remembered in the history books. After reading this blog, you are again likely to see television studios and social media networks rife with comments like ‘What does Modi have in common with them’ or ‘But they were not in Modi’s party’ among other things.”
He says that he wants to change this mind-set, adding, “There can be no greater disservice to our history than viewing these stalwarts through the narrow prism of political partisanship.”
The Gujarat CM goes on to share Maulana Azad’s thoughts on Sardar Patel, which were published in his work ‘India Wins Freedom.’ Modi writes, Maulana Azad describes not running again for Congress President as his first mistake. As for his second mistake he wrote:
“My second mistake was that when I decided not to stand myself, I did not support Sardar Patel. We differed on many issues but I am convinced thathe would have seen that the Cabinet Mission Plan was successfully implemented. He would have never committed the mistake of Jawaharlal which gave Mr. Jinnah an opportunity of sabotaging the Plan. I can never forgive myself when I think that if I had not committed these mistakes, perhaps the history of the last ten years would have been different.”
Modi does not forget to take a dig at the Nehru-Gandhi family, however. He writes, “It is equally true that there are historical figures who have been erased from public memory just because they did not belong to a particular family.”
He, however, welcomes the center’s move to launch a website dedicated to Maulana Azad. “An online portal on Maulana Azad will be launched today by the Centre containing his digital archives. This is a welcome thing but one must also ask why they only paid lip service to his legacy all these decades? Should things like this not have come much earlier?”
Modi also praised Acharya Kripalani, but the focus of his blog, no doubt, was on Modi.