Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the chairperson of the 82-member High Level Committee constituted by the Centre for the commemoration of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Bose was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Odisha and had founded the Indian National Army (INA) that attacked the Britishers from the eastern side of the then undivided India, mostly comprising NE India.

Apart from the prominent political and cultural members, the Committee also has former India captain Sourav Ganguly, actors Mithun Chakraborty and Kajol and music director A.R. Rahman.

The Committee comprises Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, former Prime Ministers H.D. Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh, several cabinet ministers from the current government, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, P.K. Mishra, Advisor to the Prime Minister Amit Khare, Governors of West Bengal and Manipur, Chief Ministers of Odisha, West Bengal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram, Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and a number of MPs from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.

NCP top leader Sharad Pawar and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad too are part of the 82-member committee notified for commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Bose on March 11.

Netaji Bose’s daughter Anita Bose, his nephew Ardhendu Bose, his grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose and grand niece Renuka Malakar too are part of the committee that also has INA freedom fighters and office bearers of Netaji Subhash Bose-INA Trust.

Also, a number of former Lok Sabha speakers, former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Dasgupta, former Chief of Army Staff, Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Arup Saha, former Chief of Army Staff, Gen (Retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury, are part of the panel.

The Committee also has journalist Kanchan Gupta, author and academician Anirban Ganguly, former Indian national football team member Subrata Bhattacharya, film maker Kaushik Ganguly, Ravi R. Kasliwal of Medanta Hospital, and General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Swami Suvirananda Maharaj.

Earlier, on January 19, 2021, in order to honour and remember Netaji’s indomitable spirit and selfless service to the nation, the Government of India had decided to celebrate his birthday on the January 23 every year as ‘Parakram Diwas’ to inspire people, especially the youth, to act with fortitude in the face of adversity as Netaji did, and to infuse in them a spirit of patriotic fervour.