PALAKKAD: Speaker MB Rajesh on Tuesday came out with a Facebook post claiming that the CPM and DYFI had always cherished the contributions of Bhagat Singh and it was some other political parties that had sidelined the martyr.
Earlier, Rajesh had triggered a row after he reportedly equated the death wishes of Variankunnath Kunhammed Haji who he said did not want to be blindfolded before being shot and freedom fighter Bhagat Singh who wanted to be shot dead by the British than be hanged.
“The accusation some people raised against me was that I had compared the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh and Variankunnath Kunhammed Haji. On Bhagat Singh’s martyrdom on March 23, 2017, I had raised a demand in Parliament to name the Chandigarh airport after him. The MPs from Punjab and other political parties supported the demand but the members of one party kept silent. Even now, this demand has not been met to my knowledge,” he said.
The statue of Bhagat Singh was installed in Parliament during the tenure of UPA I Government in 2004 based on a letter given by then MP and DYFI general secretary Mohammed Saleem. Even at that time, some people had raised objections.
“When AB Vajpayee came to power in 1998, he unveiled a portrait of Savarkar in the Central Hall of Parliament which had created a controversy. Therefore, it is those who had ignored demands to install a statue of Bhagat Singh and those who had instead chosen to unveil a portrait of Savarkar who should apologise and not me,” he said.
Rajesh said that not only Bhagat Singh, all Jallianwalla Bagh martyrs were also not remembered in a proper manner. He asked as to why in 2019, the centenary year of Jallianwala Bagh martyrdom, those in power did not take the initiative to observe it befittingly in the whole of the country.