Santa Singh Athwal was present with his five generations at the IT circle to support Anna with slogans.
During 1947 August Kranti, every Indian was part of the freedom movement, whereas now people pass by in their air-conditioned cars only to smile back at us, rather than stop and stand with us.
Times have changed thankfully, but spirits of a few Indians have not.
Such is the thought and belief of 110-year-old, Santa Singh Athwal, who was present at the Income Tax (IT) circle, along with other Anna’s supporters and activists. Athwal was present with his five generations at the IT circle to support Anna with slogans.
Athwal was born in 1901, in the month of September.
“In our times even the leaders were anxious and eager to fight against the Britishers, especially during the August Kranti. Today, the leaders themselves are corrupt. Jab sar se pair tak woh nange hain, toh kya muh lekar aayenge humein sunne? (When the government and its leaders are corrupt right from top to bottom, then how can someone expect them to listen to us?)”, Athwal said.
Athwal further added that, “Agar humari sarkar pyaar se nahi maanti toh talwarein uthao (If the government does not agree to our Lokpal Bill demands then raise swords, they are bound to listen then.) Today corruption has come into picture in every small thing, including buying of food items. Such shameful is the state of our country today that I wish we had our leaders alive to imbibe some brains into the new born leaders of today.”
Athwal reminiscences his time, when he was captain of Subhash Chandra Bose’ team of freedom fighters and was also a soldier in the British cadre of soldiers during World War II against Japan and was also an active member of the Ghadar Party, founded in 1913 by Punjabi Indian, in USA and Canada with an aim to liberate India from British Rule.
“I was one of the 65,000 soldiers who were arrested by the Japanese force and was imprisoned on their land for nearly 7 years. It was during the Japanese Occupation in Malaya that we imprisoned soldiers were encouraged to join Indian Independence League under the presidentship of Rash Bihari Bose,” he said going down memory lane.
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