The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Freedom fighters' status sought

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Sunday, Jan 23, 2011
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Freedom fighters' status sought

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Leading cultural personalities have appealed to the State government to grant the status of ‘freedom fighters' to Emergency detainees.

Writer M. Mukundan and filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan, T.V. Chandran and K.R. Mohanan, in separate statements, pointed out that there was every justification for treating the Emergency detainees as freedom fighters. People at large and the Indian administrative system had accepted the fact that there was widespread violation of democratic rights during Emergency. It, naturally, follows that the struggles against Emergency were intended to restore democratic values and to recapture the essence of the Indian Constitution.

The political beliefs of those who had participated in the struggle were varied, but their ultimate objective was to restore the fundamental rights of the citizens of India, they said.

In his statement, Mr. Mukundan said Emergency was the ‘most painful episode' in the post-Independence history of the country. Emergency was declared 28 years after the attainment of freedom. Although poverty was the norm, people enjoyed the freedom to protest and offer resistance. Emergency took away even this freedom from them.

Countless persons were imprisoned during Emergency for having raised their voice against such breach of democratic principles and civil rights.

Persons who plunged into this struggle deserved the same respect and recognition as those who had fought for the nation's freedom, Mr. Mukundan said.

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