Romance, legacy of ‘Azad Hind’ provisional govt remain, though blurred by time

Kolkata, Oct 21 (PTI):
Shakti Narayan, 77, sitting in the bedroom of his house in the city’s suburb, listened intently to an old gramophone record playing Shubh Sukh Chaina ki Barkha Barse’, the Hindustani language translation of Jana Gana Mana’, which was the national anthem of the Arzee Hukumat-I-Azad-Hind’ set up by legendary freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose on this date in war-torn Singapore, some 78 years ago.
Narayan was a toddler when his father and many other Indians secretly tuned into radio broadcasts by the Provisional Government of Free India’ as its small army progressed through the swampy forests of Myanmar towards Kohima and Imphal.
It was eventually overwhelmed by larger allied forces after a series of valiant battles, putting an end to the Azad Hind government, which though not the only provisional government set up by an Indian freedom fighter, was the first which had an army and all the trappings of a state.