On the Foundation Day of the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army), Union Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, paid tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the valiant soldiers of the INA, invoking their 1943 moment of defiance that planted the tricolour on Indian soil.

Khattar's post, shared in Hindi, offered 'kotishaḥ naman evam vandan' — a salute of a hundred million folds — to Netaji and the INA's warriors. He specifically recalled how, under Netaji's leadership, INA fighters had hoisted the tricolour in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1943 — years before formal Independence — declaring in that act the arrival of a free India.

The 1943 Tricolour Moment That Preceded Independence

The INA's raising of the Indian flag over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on December 30, 1943 stands as one of the most symbolically charged moments of the freedom struggle. Netaji renamed the islands 'Shaheed (Martyr) and Swaraj (Self-Rule) Islands', signalling that the fight was not abstract but territorial — a government-in-exile exercising sovereign will. For many historians, this act made the INA not merely a military formation but the first government to physically claim Indian land under a national flag.

The Azad Hind Fauj was formally established on October 21, 1943, when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proclaimed the Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore. The INA was a multinational force — drawing heavily from Indian prisoners of war captured by Japan in Southeast Asia and the Indian diaspora across Malaya and Singapore. At its peak, it fielded tens of thousands of soldiers united by a single demand: 'Dilli Chalo' — 'March to Delhi.'

Sacrifice, Courage, and the 'Nation First' Legacy

Khattar's message distilled three pillars he attributed to the INA's ethos: tyaag (sacrifice), sahas (courage), and aṭūṭ deśprem (unbreakable love for the nation). He closed with an enduring call — that their stories would continue to inspire 'rashtra-seva aur ekta', national service and unity. The framing is a recurring motif in how the Indian political mainstream has sought to mainstream Netaji's legacy alongside the broader freedom movement.

For a government leader invoking this anniversary, the message carries weight beyond ceremony: the INA story, long contested in colonial historiography, has gained increasing institutional recognition — from the Netaji files declassification to his portrait being installed in Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Kartavya Path in New Delhi. October 21 is now widely observed as Azad Hind Diwas.

The INA soldiers — many of whom faced trial for treason at the Red Fort in 1945, only to become national heroes overnight — remain an enduring symbol of the proposition that patriotism requires no certificate from an empire. Their legacy, Khattar wrote, will 'remain a source of 'nation-first' inspiration for all eternity.'