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When Biju Patnaik rescued ex-Indonesian PM on order of Jawaharlal Nehru | Throwback
Biju Patnaik played a death-defying role in the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch colonial rule in 1947.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday remembered and hailed former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik for his role in the Indonesian freedom struggle while speaking at the archipelago nation’s parliament in Jakarta.
Patnaik played a death-defying role in the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch colonial rule in 1947. At the request of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Patnaik broke a strict Dutch blockade, rescuing top Indonesian resistance leaders and bringing global attention to their freedom struggle.
"Both our nations gained independence around the same time: Indonesia in 1945 and India in 1947. When it came to sovereignty as independent nations, India became a strong voice in support of Indonesia's independence movement at the United Nations. The role played by the respected Biju Patnaik during that period- the way he safely brought Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir and Vice President Mohammad Hatta to India brought the two nations closer," Modi said.
While Modi highlighted Patnaik’s heroics in the rescue, he did not mention the role of Nehru.
Biju Patnaik's daring rescue of the Indonesian PM
After the Second World War ended in 1945, the Dutch attempted to recolonise Indonesia, which they had lost during the war to the Japanese in 1942. The Indonesian nationalists, led by President Achmed Sukarno (better known as Sukarno), declared independence after the Japanese surrender and resisted the Dutch attempts to recapture the territory.
The Dutch launched a massive military offensive after Indonesia declared independence on August 17, 1945, just two days after the Japanese surrendered to end the Second World War. They placed various resistance leaders, such as Indonesian Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir and Vice-President Mohammad Hatta, under house arrest in Jakarta to silence the independence movement and blocked all exit routes.
In July 1947, Jawahar Nehru, who was still heading the interim government of India in New Delhi at the time, tasked the 31-year-old pilot Biju Patnaik with a covert operation to extract the leaders so they could rally international public opinion against the Dutch. Later that month, Patnaik and his wife and co-pilot, Gyanwati Patnaik, flew a Douglas C-47 military transport aircraft, also known as the Dakota, from India into Indonesian airspace.
When the Dutch issued explicit threats that they would shoot down his plane, Patnaik issued a counter-warning that any hostile action would result in Dutch planes being targeted over Indian skies in retaliation.
Patnaik landed on a makeshift, improvised airstrip near Jakarta and successfully flew Sjahrir and Hatta out of the country via Singapore. They arrived safely in New Delhi on July 24, 1947, for crucial secret meetings with Nehru.
The operation helped internationalise the Indonesian cause and increased the pressure on the Dutch to recognise Indonesia’s independence, which they finally did on December 27, 1949.
For his contributions, Indonesia granted Biju Patnaik honorary citizenship and awarded him the Bhoomi Putra (Son of the Soil) award, one of Indonesia's highest honours rarely granted to a foreigner.
