Row over airport name upsets Bhagat Singh’s kin

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

Close relatives of Shaheed Bhagat Singh are upset that the Civil Aviation Terminal at Mohali has not been named the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport after the martyr.

They today said that they would mobilise people across the state to protest the insult heaped on the freedom fighter who made the supreme sacrifice to free the country from British rule.

Bhagat Singh’s nephew Abhey Singh Sandhu said that people would celebrate the patriot’s birth anniversary on September 28 as protest day.

“The Modi government is not even prepared to name an airport after Bhagat Singh, whose sacrifice inspired the nation to fight for freedom,” said Sandhu. The decision to name the airport after Bhagat Singh was taken in 2007 during his birth centenary celebrations, said Sandhu. The then Union Home Minister and others had attended the celebrations, he said.

Senior Congress leader Jagmeet Singh Brar said that PM Narendra Modi had insulted the nation by raking up a controversy over the airport’s name. It is a Himalayan blunder that the Mohali terminal has not been named after Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, he said.

”This is a bigger insult to the people of Haryana. The Arya Samaj movement — of which Sardar Ajit Singh of Bharat Mata Society and uncle of Bhagat Singh was the leading light — got overwhelming support from the region which has now become Haryana,” said Brar. “Leaders like late Sir Chhotu Ram, Ch Motu Ram and Ch Ranbir Singh Hooda were all inspired by the Arya Samaj movement,” he said.