After 37 years, 89-yr-old freedom fighter gets pension

Thanks to the Madras High Court, which not only tendered an apology to the freedom fighter, but also directed the State to grant him pension within the next two weeks and the arrears from the date of his application made way back in 1980 within four weeks.

Justice K Ravichandrabaabu, who slammed the government for rejecting the claim of the petitioner with irrelevant reason, said, “Sorry sir, you were made to suffer at the hands of our people too, as, unfortunately, this is how the bureaucratic dogmatism with wooden approach works, at times, in this country, for which you fought to get freedom”.

The petitioner Gandhi had joined the INA Army floated by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and was part of the Indian Independence League in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Myanmar. He was also imprisoned in Rangoon Central Jail in 1945.

With this background, he made a request on July 6, 1980, for grant of freedom fighters’ pension by Tamil Nadu. He waited for 12 years. With no response, he sent a reminder on November 18, 1992.

Interestingly, Gandhi’s plea was not considered despite him providing all justification and proof. Besides the certification by a freedom fighter K. Kalimuthu, who was his co-prisoner at Rangoon Central Jail, he had also obtained another personal knowledge Certificate from none other than Col. Lakshmi Sahgal as proof of him being a part of INA. But with his plea merely changing tables from the pension department to the District Collector, Chennai, the MHC was moved. Subsequently, a counter affidavit filed on August 16, 2017, stated that his plea could not be considered as there were discrepancies in the age in his Voter ID and the ration card. Justice Ravichandrabaabu further said, “With the two proofs obtained, there is no doubt regarding that the petitioner is bonafide.”

Gandhi told DTNext, “My struggle for the country’s freedom started when I was 16. I travelled with the INA to Japan and Burma. But thereafter, the worst struggle was walking the corridors of the Government offices, wherein the officials would keep promising pension, but nothing had materialised.”