After all the hooplah about the need for a 'consensus' on
our next President, we are going to have an election after
all! However, the fact that Dr. Kalam is going to win
handsomely takes nothing away from Dr Lakshmi Sahgal's
service to the society. Her life has been a saga of
unwavering commitment to egalitarianism and gender
equality. Handpicked by Netaji to lead the Rani of
Jhansi regiment of the Indian National Army (INA), she
recruited and trained the Ranis in Singapore and Burma.
She also headed the Department of Women's Affairs in the
provisional government of the Azad Hind, and stayed with
her comrades in the jungles of Burma until the British
caught up with her in 1945. After a month of intensive
interrogation, when the restrictions were slackened, she
even managed to hold an INA meeting and hoist the Indian
flag in British-ruled Burma! This created a splash in the
Indian newspapers, and she was promptly put under house
arrest.

INA's allying with the Axis powers had created a lot of
misgivings, and once the USSR entered the war, the INA
lost the support of the radical forces in India. The
Congress was ofcourse always opposed to violent means.
This, coupled with the British propaganda of Netaji being
a stooge of the Japanese ensured that when Dr Sahgal
finally came to India in 1946, it wasn't all approbation.
With several of the INA fighters, particularly the
illiterate among them, left in the lurch, she quickly
busied herself in the INA Relief Committee (which was
supervising the repatriation of the civilian recruits of
INA). In 1947, sensing the danger of communal violence, Dr
Sahgal and some of her INA comrades made an unsuccessful
attempt at proclaiming their "solidarity and freedom from
the virus of communalism." A staunch opponent of partition
and a proponent of Indo-Pak unity, she says in one of her
interviews, "Hamare mathe pe nahin likha hain ke hum
Pakistani hain ki Hindustani hain" (Whether we are
Pakistanis or Indians is not written on our foreheads).
How soothing in these times of war-mongering and
brave-talk!

After her offer of honorary medical service (in the
Government hospital in Kanpur) was turned down by
Vijayalakshmi Pandit, the then Minister of Health, she
established her own clinic in Kanpur which she runs to
this day. In 1971, when West Bengal was facing a deluge of
refugees from Bangladesh, she volunteered for the People's
Relief Committee in Calcutta. And when the All India
Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) was started in
1980, she was elected one of its Vice-Presidents. Last
year, she was elected patron of the UP state unit of
AIDWA, after three terms as president. During the 1984
Kanpur riots (in the aftermath of the Indira Gandhi
assassination), along with a few other committed people,
she took to the streets to contain violence. The state
finally took note of her services to the society and in
1998, awarded her the Padma Vibhushan. Not one to rest on
her laurels, this angry 'young' lady continues to fight
against feudalism and the "omnipotent caste system". She
personally cleans the place in front of her clinic, for
she doesn't want to leave these jobs to the 'menials'.

Dr Sahgal and her Ranis have pretty well smashed the
stereotypical image of women being passive, submissive and
docile. Those of us who never miss an opportunity to cry
foul at the atrocities on women and claim to fight for
their rights couldn't have found a better ally. Also,
while we can't reconcile ourselves to Netaji's death and
keep demanding a thorough probe into his disappearance,
the INA veterans have fallen out of our memory. No doubt
it's a little too late for several of them, but we could
still make amends and acknowledge our gratitude by
electing one of their own to be our next Prez. We have
opportunity knocking at our door, but the way things stand
at the moment, it's sure to go begging. Though Dr Sahgal's
nomination is largely symbolic, and I salute her for
having taken up a lost cause, I hope her message of peace
and egalitarianism gets across.

Kadam Kadam Badaye Ja, Khushi Ke Geet Gaye Ja,
Ye Jaan Hai Qaum ki, Ise Qaum Pe Tu Lutaye Ja

[March forward with joyous singing, Sacrifice
this life to the country to which it belongs]

-- National anthem of the INA