Malkangiri,Jan 30: The birth anniversaries of Veer Surendra Sai and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were observed at a government office in Malkangiri district under the supervision of Association President Balaraj Raju Padhi.
Addressing the gathering as the chief speaker, Prakash Chandra Pattnaik said that Veer Surendra Sai was a great freedom fighter and revolutionary of Odisha. He was born in 1809 in Khinda village of Sambalpur district. He fought against the British through guerrilla warfare and was imprisoned for a total of 20 years—13 years during the first phase (1827–1840) and 7 years during the second phase (1857–1864). The British feared him greatly. He breathed his last at Asirgarh on 28 February 1884. He was popularly known as the “Lion of Sambalpur.” The speaker remarked that a warrior like him is born only once in a hundred years.
Similarly, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was born in 1897 in the Odia Bazaar area of Cuttack, Odisha. He was a brilliant student and consistently secured top positions in his class. He passed the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination in 1920 but resigned due to his intolerance of British rule and oppression in India. He later joined the freedom struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress.
Netaji secretly left India and reached abroad, where in 1943 he reorganized the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) and formed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind, becoming its Supreme Commander. Reports stated that he went missing in a plane crash in Taiwan on 18 August 1945. However, he continues to live immortal in the hearts of Indians.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Editor Ashok Kumar Samal and Organization Secretary Jeevan Kumar Mohanty. Among those present were Vice President Surendra Kumar Mallik, Advisors Shiva Prasad Patra and Giridhari Panigrahi, Nabakumar Sahu, Ganesh Chandra Jena, Babaji Charan Swain, K. Shiva Shankar Patra, Kali Prasad Choudhury, Jagannath Tiyadi, Purna Chandra Sahu, S. Swaraswamy and others.
The programme concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by Jay Heva Raul.