Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday led a Tricolour march in Lucknow to mark the 101st anniversary of the Kakori Train Action, with thousands of people joining the procession from his official residence to the state Assembly.
The march began at around 9.20 am from 5, Kalidas Marg and reached the Vidhan Bhavan after covering nearly two kilometres in about 30 minutes. Adityanath walked with Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and state BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary. At several points, the chief minister was seen walking with Pathak on one side and Maurya and Chaudhary on the other.
The procession was accompanied by patriotic songs, chants of "Vande Mataram" and "Bharat Mata Ki Jai". Around 30,000 people, including cabinet ministers, BJP leaders, schoolchildren and young people, took part in the march. A group of children carried a 101-foot-long Tricolour to the Assembly.
Adityanath also interacted with children during the march and took selfies with them and Chaudhary.
UP Women Commission vice-chairperson Aparna Yadav and BJP state vice-president Pooja Pal were among those who participated. Yadav said the participation of Gen-Z showed that young people were connected with the country's patriotic traditions.
Speaking at the Kakori Train Action centenary programme, Adityanath said the revolutionaries involved in the incident had a single objective, to free India from British rule.
"Kakori was not a dacoity. The sole objective of our great revolutionaries was to secure India's freedom and drive the British out," he said.
The British administration had described the incident as a dacoity, but Adityanath said it was unfortunate that the same description continued to be used after Independence. He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with giving the incident its historical identity by referring to it as the Kakori Train Action.
The Kakori Train Action took place on August 9, 1925, near Kakori in Lucknow. Hindustan Republican Association revolutionaries stopped a train carrying government treasury money and seized the funds to support their armed struggle against British rule. The incident became one of the defining episodes of the revolutionary movement in northern India.
Adityanath also criticised the Congress for what he described as its failure to acknowledge the contribution of revolutionaries. Referring to the 1922 Chauri Chaura incident, he said the Congress had distanced itself from the episode and subsequently suspended the Non-Cooperation Movement.
The chief minister said the history of India's freedom struggle should not remain confined to textbooks. He said the sacrifices and struggles of freedom fighters must be taken to younger generations so that they could draw inspiration from them.
"Those who kept the younger generation away from the glorious history of revolutionaries and national heroes did the greatest injustice to the youth," he said.
Adityanath also warned against attempts by what he called anti-India forces to misuse social media to spread rumours and mislead people. He said young people needed to understand the country's history and the contribution of its freedom fighters to counter misinformation.
Earlier, speaking on the Tricolour campaign, Adityanath said every Indian should proudly hoist the national flag at home on August 15.
He said there was a time when people had to struggle to display the Tricolour at their homes, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi had enabled 140 crore Indians to freely hoist the national flag.
"It cannot continue that we live in India but insult India's symbols, national heroes, national anthem and national song," he said.
The chief minister also called for "Vande Mataram" to be sung in institutions and said such programmes were important for strengthening patriotism and instilling a sense of pride in the country among young people.
From the historic land of Kakori, Adityanath paid tribute to the revolutionaries and said India's freedom was the result of the sacrifices and struggles of countless freedom fighters. He said the responsibility of building the India envisioned by those revolutionaries rested with the present generation.
