LOK SABHA ___ SYNOPSIS OF DEBATES (Proceedings other than Questions & Answers) ______ Wednesday, August 9, 2017 / Shravana 18, 1939 (Saka) ______ WELCOME TO PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION FROM SEYCHELLES HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, I have to make an announcement. On behalf of the hon. Members of the House and on my own behalf, I have great pleasure in welcoming hon. Patrick Pillay, Speaker of the National Assembly of Seychelles and Members of the Parliamentary Delegation from the Republic of Seychelles who are on a visit to India as our honoured guests. They arrived in India on Tuesday, 8th August, 2017 and are now seated in the Special Box. Besides Delhi, they will also visit Jaipur before their final departure from India on Monday, 14th August, 2017. We wish them a happy and fruitful stay in our country. Through them, we convey our greetings and best wishes to the National Assembly, the Government and the friendly people of Seychelles. REFERENCE BY THE SPEAKER HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, today is a momentous day when we are observing the 75th anniversary of 'Quit India' movement. It was on 9 August, 1942, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation through his clarion call of 'Quit India' galvanized the entire Nation to rise in unison to free the country from the shackles of imperialist subjugation. On this occasion, while paying our homage to the Father of the Nation and to all the martyrs who laid down their lives in the freedom struggle. The Members then stood in silence for a short while. ADDRESS BY THE SPEAKER Special Discussion to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the 'Quit India Movement' HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, today is 9th August. Today we complete 75 years since the 'Quit India Movement' call was given. It is a very important occasion for us. Normally this is the time fixed for the Question Hour but keeping in view the feelings of Members attached to this special occasion, we suspend the Question Hour and start a discussion to allow everyone to mark this day to express their views. On the completion of 70 years of India's Independence and 75 years of most important movement of freedom struggle, the 'Quit India Movement', I feel proud to remember those moments with all the Members of the House and the countrymen. On this day in 1942, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi demanded complete withdrawal of Britishers from India by giving a call for the historical 'Quit India Movement', which shook the foundations of the foreign rule and we were able to free our motherland. Though, 'Quit India Movement' was the last movement before we attained freedom, yet there is a long history of movements for India's freedom. The Britishers established their rule over India, but from the very first day of their rule, efforts for India's freedom were also started. When the Britishers were enjoying the fruits of their colonial rule, the feeling of swaraj was taking shape in the minds of the local rulers, farmers, intellectuals, the common man and the soldiers of different States. Public anger was expressed in various forms against the foreign rule at different places. There was deep resentment against the foreign rule. This included the Pike revolt in Odisha. They were eager to become torchbearer of freedom movement. We all have heard about Dheeran Chinnamlai, Kattboman of South India and Santhal Revolt of Jharkhand. Ramsingh Kooka was one of such freedom fighters. Everyone has heard of the great freedom fighters. However, there have been several freedom fighters about whom very few people know. There are several freedom fighters who laid down their lives for the freedom of the country such as Matangini Hazra of erstwhile East Bengal, Queen Gaidinliu of Nagaland, Basudev, Balwant Fadke, an ordinary labourer Babu Genu of Maharashtra but people know very little about them. Bal Gangadhar Tilak of Maharashtra gave the slogan 'freedom is my birth right and I will have it'. Gandhiji said, 'let every Indian consider himself to be a free man'. He expressed this view during Quit India Movement. This shows how small movements in different parts of the country gave shape to the nationwide movement in 1942. 'Do or Die' call during the 'Quit India Movement' gave an impetus to this struggle. During this movement the Britishers realised that it was not possible to continue their rule over India. I am extremely overwhelmed by remembering the courage and sacrifice of those brave martyrs who unfurled the tri-color at Patna Secretariat, without fearing the bullets by the Britishers and gave clarion call for the freedom of the country in advance. Similar acts of bravery reported in other small towns and areas of the country such as, Munger, Murshidabad, Satara, Ballia, who declared themselves free from British Rule. The 'Quit India Movement' resolution was moved on 8th August 1942 in the late evening in the meeting at the Gowaliya Tank Ground in Mumbai. On the same night, the 'Quit India' resolution was passed unanimously. In his 90 minute address, Mahatma Gandhi gave a call of 'Do or Die'. The British Government arrested one after another leader at midnight itself. The nation was certainly shocked by such large-scale arrests but did not succumb, the spirit was kept alive. The greatest success of the 'Quit India Movement' was that this movement shook the consciousness of the intellectuals of the country as well as that of the crores of farmers, workers and youths in the villages which connect them directly with the freedom struggle. Today, we pay our homage to those unknown braves - in the hearts and minds of whom the feeling of patriotism was ever burning and their eyes were filled with dreams of free India - who were martyred during the 'Quit India Movement'. It is our sacred duty to understand, adopt and publicize the outlook of those braves, stalwarts, the pure souls. To my mind several such names would emerge. Today we will discuss it here. If we listen to the tales of the grandmothers, maternal grandmother, grandfathers, uncles or discuss it in our villages then we would know that every house sacrificed in one way or the other. Perhaps, someone may have sold his house to save a revolutionary - sacrificed his everything. I have heard that after the speech of Gandhiji when the donation box was passed around then the women promptly took out their necklaces and donated it without hesitation. Even the most ordinary person made supreme sacrifice at that time. In a way, this was the feeling in every household. It is not that this feeling was confined to that time only. I would say that feeling is present even today. We have to rekindle it. I have seen this with my own eyes. I would like to narrate an incident which I heard at that time regarding the reaction of a woman when told about the ban on 'Kesari'. There was a ban on Kesari. There was a discussion going on in my village also. I was told by my grandparents that Kesari had been banned and how Kesari would be available. People of Maharashtra are well aware that it was a passion to read Kesari in those times. Whatever was reported in Kesari had a lot of sentiments. Lokmanya Tilak while writing the article received a massage that his son had died. He uttered only one sentence without a blink while writing the article that one offering had been consigned on the altar of the freedom struggle from his house. I am aware when the British government had put a ban on Kesari stating that nobody would read it then there was a discussion. The Government officers can understand the ramifications today. When this discussion was going on in the house, a lady came forward and suggested that Kesari could be subscribed in her name if it was not to be subscribed in the name of the male member of the house. Now, another fact came to the fore in the discussion that she was not literate. She replied that it did not matter as somebody else could read it out to her but in any case Kesari would be subscribed in the house in her name. This was a general sentiment in the households. This sentiment has not died down even today. Let me narrate to you something, which I had witnessed myself. Great freedom fighter, Veer Savarkar, though some people raise questions on him, had sacrificed everything for the country's freedom. Renowned filmmaker Sudhir Fadke whom many of us know very well, was making a film on Veer Savarkar and was travelling from village to village to crowd funding the film. He had a strong passion to bring forth the real story of Veer Savarkar to the people of India. He visited my hometown Indore also and delivered a speech in a meeting. He stated that he wanted to make a film on Veer Savarkar. Everyone donated something or the other. An ordinary woman came forward saying that she did not have much money in her bank account but she donated her gold bangles to make the film on Veer Savarkar. This sentiment is still alive but it has to be rekindled. The enthusiasm, courage, resolution, faith and self-confidence with which we have attained our freedom, we ought to nurture these values to build a great, prosperous, strong and powerful nation, India of our dreams. Our freedom fighters had given a clarion call in those times asking the Britishers to quit India. Today as we all are sitting here in this august House as representatives of the people, I feel that we had then asked the Britishers to quit India but today we need a movement to integrate the country.