Naidu calls for organising students visits to Cellular Jail & other historic places linked to freedom struggle;

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on January 16, 2020, urged the HRD Ministry and all State Governments to organise visits of students to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair and other historical places associated with the freedom struggle.

The Vice President visited the Cellular Jail, including the solitary confinement cell occupied by Veer Savarkar, and paid his tributes at the martyrs’ column, to the valiant freedom fighters, who were subjected to inhuman treatment during their incarceration at the time of freedom struggle. Naidu was accompanied by his spouse Ms Ushamma, his son, son-in-law, daughter, and grand-children.

In a Facebook Post, the Vice President described his visit to the solitary confinement cell of Veer Savarkar as a “humbling experience”. He said that Veer Savarkar’s life is a great inspiration to youngsters, according to a PIB release. He said that it (the Jail) was a stark reminder of the cruel and sadistic treatment meted to freedom fighters, who refused to abandon their love for the motherland. Fired by their patriotic passion and an iron resolve to free the country from an alien rule, the brave freedom fighters never gave up, he added.

Naidu said that the Cellular jail was a reminder of how hard-won and precious our freedom is. Stating that the Jail was now a place of pilgrimage for all those who love the country and value freedom, the Vice President described it as a symbol of resistance to the ills of colonialism. While reminding the younger generation of the countless stories of sacrifices made by the courageous freedom fighters, he expressed confidence that a visit to the Cellular Jail would inspire them to strive for the greater glory of the country and to always protect the unity and integrity of this great nation.

Completed in the year 1906, Cellular Jail, also known as ‘kala pani’ or the ‘black waters’, derived its name from the small, individual cells that housed prisoners. Of the three-pronged tactic of hunger, torture and isolation, it was the isolation from fellow beings that acted as the harshest of punishments to inmates. Naidu said the purpose of solitary confinement was to demoralise freedom fighters. The jail, surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean on all sides, provided little scope or hope for inmates to escape.