PM Modi's salute to 97-year-old Jana Sangh veteran steals the show

KOLKATA/SILIGURI: For decades, at the break of dawn, Makhanlal Sarkar would leave his modest home in Surya Sen Park Colony in Siliguri in 'khadi' shorts, RSS belt and boots for organisational work. At 97, the lifelong swayamsevak and grassroots political worker has received what many in his locality dub as the recognition of a lifetime - an honour from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sarkar, once an aide to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, said so after Modi touched his feet and hugged him at the oath-taking ceremony of chief minister Suvendu Adhikari at Brigade on Saturday morning.





For the veteran, the long-cherished desire of his life had been fulfilled. His life finally received a meaning. He has been a sangh parivar member since the age of 16. After the BJP was formed in 1980, he served as organisational coordinator for north Bengal, including Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and West Dinajpur. He is credited with bringing nearly 10,000 members to the party within a year during its initial expansion.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya said: "Sarkar accompanied Mookerjee during his last journey." According to the him, the veteran was arrested in Kashmir for singing patriotic songs. "He had never bowed down before the atrocities of Congress government," said Bhattacharya. Recalling the 1990 Ram Ratha Yatra, when LK Advani was arrested during his journey from Somnath to Ayodhya, Sarkar said attempts were also made to arrest him in Bihar.

"I was at Purnea's Bengal-Bihar border for welcoming Advaniji. But cops came and told me he had been arrested and even threatened to arrest me when I showed them a permission from the then CM Jyoti Basu who had allowed me to host ratha yatra in the state, they released me," he said.

Despite financial hardship, Sarkar never gave up responsibilities towards his children or ideological commitment. He raised two sons, Manik and Sunny Sarkar, and four daughters - Unju Choudhary, Manju Sarkar, Sanjita Sarkar and Nandita Sarkar - with barely any financial security. The family survived mainly on produce from land. In 1984, when the BJP's presence in the district was weak, he became district secretary with only a handful of supporters.