Students march to Bhagat Singh’s home; demand protection of martyrs’ legacies

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, March 23

In an election year, the fervour of the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh and his associates was missing at his ancestral village due to recent political upheavals in the state. Hundreds of students under the banner of the Punjab Students Union (PSU) organised a conference today and later marched to Bhagat Singh’s residence at Khatkar Kalan village to demand protection of martyrs’ legacies and sites associated with them.

On the occasion, PSU state president Ranveer Singh Kurd and general secretary Amandeep Singh Khiowali said the governments were leaving historical legacies associated with the state’s martyrs unattended. The union leaders demanded that sites associated with martyrs Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Madan Lal Dhingra, Guru Gobind Singh and Dewan Todar Mal in Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Ropar and Sirhind be protected and restored.

The sites which leaders referred to included the secret abode and hide out of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his companions in Ferozepur; houses of Shaheed Sukhdev and Madan Lal Dhingra in Ludhiana and Amritsar, respectively; the historical fort of Kotla Nihang associated with Guru Gobind Singh and the haveli of Dewan Todar Mall in Sirhind.

The leaders said the sites were in a pathetic condition and needed restoration. They said historical buildings were source of inspiration for youth and the need of the hour was to protect them.

Speaking on the occasion, state leaders Amar Nath and Baljit Singh Dharamkot said dozens of writers, intellectuals, journalists and political prisoners, who had completed their sentences, were languishing in jails for no reason and should be released immediately. They said due to the New Education Policy, many schools and colleges would be closed. They said this would deprive poor students from education and private institutions would loot people.

They said education should be included in the state list of the constitution. The state government should prepare its own education policy.

Students took an oath at Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s house to guard his ideology and that of his companions. PSU state leaders Dheeraj Kumar, Ravi Dhillwan, Mangaljit Pandori and DMF leader Germanjit Singh were among others who addressed the gathering.

Sans the grand and high pitched political rhetoric of the previous years, politicians visit at Khatkar Kalan village remained a low-key affair today amidst the implementation of the Poll Code of Conduct and recent arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

A programme organised by the Shiromani Akali Dal in the presence of its chief Sukhbir Badal was more of a seminar than a political event.