Eighty-three years after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Azad Hind in Singapore, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai marked the occasion on 21 October 2026 with a heartfelt tribute to the soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj — the Indian National Army that dared to take the fight for freedom to the battlefield.

Posting in Hindi on X, CM Sai offered his homage to the 'veer saput' (brave sons of the motherland) who, under Netaji's command, gave everything to the cause of Indian independence. 'The example of indomitable courage, sacrifice, and patriotism set by the soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj under the leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will always inspire the countrymen to serve the nation,' he wrote, closing with the iconic rallying cry: Jai Hind!

The moment that defined October 21, 1943

On 21 October 1943, Subhas Chandra Bose stood in Singapore's Cathay Building and formally announced the Provisional Government of Free India — Azad Hind Sarkar — transforming a military force into a sovereign political declaration. The Azad Hind Fauj, drawing its ranks from Indian prisoners of war and the Indian diaspora across Southeast Asia, became the armed expression of that government. It was among the most audacious acts of the independence movement: a government-in-exile with its own currency, its own courts, its own army — fighting British imperial power on a second front while the mainstream movement engaged in civil disobedience at home.

BJP's consistent reclamation of the armed-resistance narrative

CM Sai's tribute is part of a deliberate, recurring pattern from BJP-governed states. By foregrounding the INA's martial nationalism alongside — and sometimes above — the civil-disobedience tradition, BJP leaders emphasise a strand of the independence movement that, for decades, received less institutional celebration. Netaji Bose and the INA have become emblematic of this reclamation: a hero whose legacy cuts across ideological lines, giving such tributes broad popular resonance.

For Chhattisgarh, a state whose tribal and rural communities have deep traditions of resistance and sacrifice, the messaging carries particular weight — connecting a national historical moment to the state's own spirit of rashtrabhakti (patriotism).

Eighty-three years on, the soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj remain a living argument about what it truly costs to build a free nation — and official India keeps returning to that argument, one October 21st at a time.