Bhagat Singh yet to get his due: Minister

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 28

Cooperation and Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said today that it was disheartening that while Pakistan had named a chowk after Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, our country had still not accorded the status of martyr to him.

The minister said this while addressing a gathering on the occasion of 112th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh at his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan near here today.

Paying tributes to the martyr, the minister said it was high time that Shaheed Bhagat Singh be given martyr status instead of being called rebels. Expressing anguish at the non-inclusion of freedom fighters from Punjab in the names written at Andaman and Nicobar Jail, he said the jail was named Kalapani only because of Punjabi freedom fighters being confined there. He said he had even written to the Union government expressing his anguish.

Totally rejecting the culture of holiday on the birth anniversaries of the great personalities, the minister instead advocated holding of seminars in schools and colleges to educate the youth on their ideology.

Randhawa started two youth clubs of the district based at Mandhali and Kahma villages exclusively for girls and also honoured the family members of Bhagat Singh and Shaheed Sukhdev. The family members included Kiranjit Singh (son of Bhagat Singh’s younger brother Kultar Singh), Jasmeet Kaur (granddaughter of Bhagat Singh’s uncle Swaran Singh) and Ashok Thapar and Sandeep Thapar, nephews of Sukhdev.

The highlight of today’s function was the presentation of “kavishri” by students of the Government Senior Secondary Smart School, Mukandpur, a play ‘Basanti Chola’ by artistes of Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi, Chandigarh, and bhangra by students of Sikh National College, Banga, in the auditorium of the museum.

The minister, meanwhile, stirred up a controversy saying, “It is very unfortunate that we have today lost the courage to speak up. When there is a need to bring about another ‘inquilaab’, our conscience is lying dead. Today, not even the ministers dare to call spade a spade.” Later when asked about its context, he said he was saying this in reference to a gathering of just 500 people at the function of martyrs and distributing shawls worth Rs 250 each to the kin of martyrs.