New Delhi, Aug 9 (Bureau) On the anniversary of Quit India movement, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said the price paid for independence by millions of Indians should not be forgotten, and called for renewing resolve to defend freedom. In a message issued on Tuesday, the Congress President also remembered Aruna Asif Ali, and educator, political activist, and publisher, who is remembered for hoisting the Indian National flag at the Gowalia Tank maidan, Bombay during the Quit India Movement in 1942.”On this historic day, Aruna Asif Ali held aloft the National flag when lakhs and lakhs of Congress workers were beaten and jailed. Her act of courage became the symbol of our quest for freedom,” Sonia Gandhi said.
“As we commemorate the Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, let us not forget the price that millions of our countrymen and women paid for India’s freedom. Let us renew our resolve to defend it and protect it with all our might,” she said. Congress’ General Secretary Communication Jairam Ramesh meanwhile took a dig at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and said Shyama Prasad Mookherjee did not take part in the Quit India movement.’What do you think RSS was doing 80 years ago on this historic day when Mahatma launched Quit India? It was on the sidelines dissociating itself from the mass movement. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee took no part while Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, Azad, Prasad, Pant and many others were jailed,” Ramesh said in a tweet.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a statement shared on Twitter. “On this day, united with the slogan of Quit India Movement, Indians started a struggle against the brutal British rule. Our greatest strength is solidarity. Let us take the pledge of ‘Bharat Jodo’ and add new dimensions of development in India, raising the flag of unity in diversity,” she said.In her statement she also targeted the RSS “when the whole country was together in the Quit India movement, RSS had appealed to Indians not to join the movement and supported the British during the time”. The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Kranti, was a movement launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee by Mohandas Gandhi on August 8, 1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British rule in India.