The All India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) chairman and former chief of the Indian Youth Congress, Maninderjeet Singh Bitta is once again in the news. He, recently, slammed BKU leader Rakesh Tikait for the Delhi tractor rally violence that took place on Republic Day.
M. S. Bitta held Rakesh Tikait responsible for disrespecting the national flag on the red fort. Bitta said that it was Tikait who incited people by giving provocative speeches.
Rakesh Tikait is among the 37 farmers’ leaders who have been named in FIRs related to the Republic Day violence in Delhi. These leaders have been charged with sections pertaining to attempt to murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy, among others.
M. S. Bitta is an Indian Sikh who is known for bold and fearless statements and he has the guts to speak against injustice. He is not scared of anyone. He says that I am fighting for the unity and integrity of the country.
Bitta is one of the few men in the world who can claim to have survived 15 bombs. It first happened when he was merely six-years-old as he was bombed when he hoisted the Indian flag at the Golden temple in 1983 taking on terrorist Bindrawale’s threat of challenging him to not put up the flag.
He grew up reading books on Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Shaheed Udham Singh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh that expanded his vision and greatly influenced his ideology and thinking.
Bitta had lost a leg in a bomb attack on July 7, 1992, that killed 13 people in Punjab’s Amritsar city. He survived another deadly attack on September 11, 1993, at Indian Youth Congress premises in Delhi as its president in which nine people were killed and 36 others wounded. Attacking the Congress government in Delhi in 2013, Bitta had accused the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of backstabbing him by withdrawing his security. He had said his party dumped him and left to die despite him being on terrorists’ hit list.
MS Bitta is a living legend. A true patriot. His story deserves to be told, to inspire all Indians in these very divisive times. Bitta left politics to become a full-time social worker. He is provided with Z+ security for lifetime. His life is truly inspiring. His story will inspire the millions of youth of our country.
