Lunatic, says Netaji's aide

Colonel Nizamuddin

Piyush Srivastava, TT, Mubarakpur, June 5: A man who risked his life to save Subhas Chandra Bose in the jungles of Burma crossed another milestone today but it was overshadowed by the misadventure of another who had sought to hijack the name of Netaji's army. "Colonel" Nizamuddin, Netaji's driver and bodyguard, today completed 47 years since his return to India from Rangoon.

he "Colonel", given the moniker by Netaji, is waiting for a token recognition as a freedom fighter - a badge of honour he can wear before he "finally departs". He is racing against time: Nizamuddin puts his age at 116.

Last Thursday, sitting at Hind Bhawan, Nizamuddin's home at Mubarakpur in Azamgarh, the centurion recalled his days with Netaji and the 47-year wait in India.

A few hours later and nearly 600km away in Mathura, a stand-off between a cult that called its armed wing "Azad Hind Fauj" after Netaji's army spun out of control and exploded into a conflagration, taking as many as 28 lives at last count.

The leader of the cult, RamBriksh Yadav, was among those killed as police evicted encroachers from a park within which a "free nation" was sought to be established.

Tonight, Nizamuddin said in response to a question about Ram Briksh: " Woh ek fraudiya tha, deshdrohi tha... achchha hua jal ke mar gaya (He was a fraud, an anti-national person... it's good that he died in the fire)."

He added: "The Azad Hindi Fauj was struggling to make India a free and beautiful nation. But this man of Mathura worked to make India an ugly country. He had no right to use Netaji's name. Ram Briksh used to mislead poor people in the name of my Netaji. Such a lunatic cannot understand Netaji and his ideology."

The "Colonel" should know what he is talking about: he had earned his laurels in the jungles of Burma (now Myanmar). He is neither a stranger to guns nor squeamish about using them. Once, the veteran says, he had shot a British officer for suggesting that donkeys were more valuable than Indians.

"We were in the forests of Burma, fighting against the British army.... Suddenly I saw the barrel of a gun peeping from between the bushes and jumped in front of him (Netaji). I fell unconscious after taking three bullets. I saw Netaji standing beside me after I regained consciousness. Captain Lakshmi Sahgal had removed the bullets from my body. That was in 1943."

It was after that day, he said, that Netaji started calling him "Colonel".

Nizamuddin returned to India on June 5, 1969. Since then he has been waiting for recognition as a freedom fighter -- a goal hindered by the absence of documents that officials need to prove his association with Netaji's Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj.

" Koi pension jo freedom f ighters ko milta hai, ya phir ek tamga hi sahi (Let them give me the pension due to a freedom fighter, or even a medal)," Nizamuddin said on Thursday, sitting on a rope cot in Dhakwan, his native village in Mubarakpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Many people have made claims about their proximity to Netaji. But Nizamuddin's profile -- and hope -- soared when Narendra Modi, who was contesting the Lok Sabha elections, invited him to Varanasi for a political rally in May 2014 and touched his feet.

"I have nothing to do with the BJP. But still I had blessed him," the centenarian recalled.

Although Nizamuddin feels the Prime Minister has been too busy since then to look into his wish, a pet scheme of Modi had helped bring the veteran back into the limelight recently. Nizamuddin opened a bank account on April 26 under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and officials told him that he was the oldest person in the world to do so.

But he had opened the SBI account with a specific wish that remains unfulfilled.

"We continued fighting and reached up to Imphal in 1944. After such a life, I am waiting for some help in my country. It was with this hope that I opened my first bank account with my wife Ajbun Nisha (107) on April 26. The State Bank of India employees who came to my house to open the account told me I was the oldest person in the world to have opened his first account,"

Nizamuddin's hopes had flickered on April 7 when he received the first letter of his life from any government.

The Uttar Pradesh government had responded through a letter after Mohammad Akram, Nizamuddin's third son, had written to the Centre asking that his father's sacrifices for the country's freedom be recognised. The Centre had then written to the state government. In its letter, the state said local officers had been told to find out how Nizamuddin could be helped.

How did he end up in Rangoon?

His father Imam Ali had a canteen abroad. Nizamuddin and his mother lived in their native village. One day, he ran away from home and reached Rangoon via Calcutta on a ship.

"I joined the British army in early 1943 without telling my father about it. One day, I overheard a lieutenant asking his men to let the Indians die but to save the donkeys to carry food for the force. I got furious, gunned him down and ran away to Singapore."

He joined the Azad Hind Fauj, changing his name from Saifuddin to Nizamuddin. "I lived a hero's life but I'm dying as a joker," Nizamuddin said.

But Akram, a farmer, is hopeful.

"Can you please give me the address of Narendra Modi?" he said. "Who knows? The PM may honour Netaji's Colonel."