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Nehru spirit prevails as Manmohan lands in Singapore
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh reached here from Bali Saturday night for
the final leg of his four-day 'Look East' tour to meet the
leadership of this city state and also to unveil a Nehru bust
along the picturesque Singapore river.
Manmohan Singh will meet Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
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Singapore: Sixty-one
years after Jawaharlal Nehru last visited this island state,
Singapore commemorates in stone India's first prime minister as a
"friend to our shores".
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unveiling a bust of Nehru at
the Asian Civilisation Museum green on the picturesque banks of
the Singapore River Sunday along with Emeritus Senior Minister Goh
Chok Tong, it was further affirmation of a historic connect that
also includes Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who spent some years of
his life in this city state.
Singapore's National Heritage Board has also marked the site of
the INA Memorial, the foundation stone of which was laid by Bose
in July 1945 and subsequently destroyed by Lord Louis Mountbatten
who was then the head of the Southeast Asia Command.
In 1995, that spot at what is now the Esplanade Park was restored
by the Heritage Board.
Not too far away from that is where Nehru's bust, sculpted by
India's Biman Bihari Das, and marker, will now stand.
According to Ong Yey Huat, chairperson of the National Heritage
Board, each of Nehru's three visits "contributed to the growing
frienship between our two countries... We hope that with this
marker, the long-standing friendship between our two nations and
our heritage institutions will continue to grow from strength to
strength."
So far, Singapore has "marked" only four personalities - Polish
English writer Joseph Conrad, father of modern Vietnam Ho Chi Minh,
Filipino revolutionary leader Jose Rizal and Chinese leader Deng
Xiaoping.
Nehru first visited Singapore in May 1937 with daughter Indira as
part of a pan-Malayan tour; then in March 1946, in the turbulent
year before India's independence, he came at the invitation of
Mountbatten; his last visit was in June 1950 when he was prime
minister on his way back from Indonesia. Daughter Indira
accompanied him on this visit too during which he laid the
foundation stone of the Singapore Indian Association and the
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hall.
"Singapore will become the place where Asian unity is forged. In
the future, the peoples of Asia must hold together for their own
good as well as the good and freedom of the world," he had told a
journalist in here in 1946 after visiting the INA memorial.
The words were prophetic and resonate even today.
On May 30, 1964, three days after Nehru died in New Delhi,
thousands gathered to mourn the death of Nehru at Jalan Besar
Stadium, the same spot where he had called for peace and
conciliation in a region where decolonisation was in progress.
Then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew honoured the memory of a "staunch
friend" who had led India to freedom and won the hearts of
millions to his vision of harmony and justice in a post-colonial
world.
More than five decades later, on a sunny Sunday morning,
Singaporeans honoured the man again.
(Minu Jain can
be contacted at minu.jain@ians.in)
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