Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday suggested the setting up of a memorial to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army (INA) in Myanmar.
“It was in Myanmar that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose made the clarion call of ‘Give me blood and I will give you freedom’, to which many people responded,” Modi said while addressing a gathering of the Indian diaspora at the Thuwunna Stadium here on the second day of his three-day official visit to Myanmar.
He said that he had the good fortune to meet some of the soldiers of the INA in Myanmar who are now in very advanced stage of age.
“We (India and Myanmar) can together do a survey for an INA memorial here,” he stated to much applause from the gathering.
Stating that people-to-people ties are the strength of India-Myanmar relations, he said that a road project connecting Manipur in northeastern India with Myanmar has been approved.
Estimates vary between 1.5 million and 2.5 million about the number of people of Indian origin living in Myanmar.
Praising the work of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for Indians abroad, Modi said: “She is sensitive to the concerns of every Indian in any part of the world and is always ready to help.”
The Prime Minister said that all Myanmar citizens wishing to travel to India will get gratis visas. He also announced that 40 Myanmarese fishermen lodged in Indian jails would be released.
Talking about his government’s development initiatives, he said that “we are not merely reforming India but are transforming India”.
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