Independence Day - It was easier fighting British than Indian Babu

By Vijay Kumar

GOUR Hari Das is 84 years old. As a fifteen year old boy, he took part in the freedom fight and was jailed. Das was a part of "Vanar Sena" of freedom fighters during the struggle and used to transport confidential messages from one group to another. It took him 32 years to fight the Indian bureaucracy to get a freedom fighter's certificate.

"I had filed my first application for getting the freedom fighter's certificate at district collector's office on March 12, 1976. And after 22 years (in 1998), I was told by the same office that since I had done my patriotic work in Orissa I should apply for the same to that government. If that is the case they should have told me to do so on the first day of filing the application," he said.

He donates 80 per cent of his freedom fighter's pension to a hospital.

A film about him Gour Hari Dastaan is to be released today on the eve of Independence Day.

Verghese Kurien, the Milk man wrote in an article for us, "The principal enemy of Anand has always been the Milk Commissioner and the Milk Department. That's the principal enemy, not Polsons, not the private traders. So, the main problem is how to educate our bureaucracy to be truly public servants, servants of the people rather than bosses."

This is what Independence is all about. Happy Independence Day.