Former CM Tarun Gogoi Demands Bharat Ratna for Assam Martyr Kushal Konwar

Guwahati, October 24, 2019:

Three-time former Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, has demanded Bharat Ratna for Assam’s Kushal Konwar, a martyr of the Quit India Movement in the state.

Tarun Gogoi took to his tweeter and wrote, “We demand Bharat Ratna for Kushal Konwar, a martyr of the Quit India Movement in Assam. Konwar is more fit for the country’s top award than Veer Savarkar, upon whom the BJP had promised to confer Bharat Ratna ahead of the Assembly election in Maharashtra.”

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Kushal Konwar, a freedom fighter from Assam and happened to be the only martyr in India who was hanged during the last phase of the Quit India Movement of 1942-43. At dawn on 15 June, 1943 at 4:30 am, Kushal Konwar was hanged in Jorhat Jail.

Moreover, in a trend of tweets, Gogoi also mentioned, “Savarkar is an accused in the conspiracy case to eliminate Mahatma Gandhi. I think Kushal Konwar, who had embraced martyrdom during the Quit India Movement, deserves Bharat Ratna.”

It is to be mentioned that Modi- led BJP government has recommended Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for Bharat Ratna Award.

Reportedly, it has been alleged that Savarkar tendered apologies to the British rulers while imprisoned in the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands between 1910 and 1920.

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Allegations are also that, it was Savarkar and not Mohammed Ali Jinnah who was the progenitor of the two-nation theory that led to the birth of Pakistan and that Muslims and Christians would have been second class citizens in Savarkar's vision of the Hindu Rashtra.

He was an accused in the murder of Gandhi and was let off only on a technicality.

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