Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Who Killed Bhagat Singh?


and Rajguru, Sukhdev, or Azaad, Bose and others for that matter.

23rd March, 1931, a 24 year old Bhagat Singh was hanged for his principles, for an independent nation, for people like you and me. Do we even remember that? Remember him?

Today Bhagat Singh has become a fashionable memory, to be remembered only on the 15th of August and 26th of January and one or two national holiday. 23rd of March is celebrated as Martyr's day with a few articles and davp advertisements in newspapers. Patriotic Indians play songs from movies composed on his life, hang his pictures in school staff rooms and on one or two prominent walls in government offices.

What is the need to remember our freedom struggle anyway? And its consequent martyrs? India is developing rapidly, by 2020 we'll be the superpower that every one will respect and not only in Twenty 20 cricket. Our purchasing power has grown rapidly, today we've the best of the brands in our homes, on our skins and exotic fruits and vegetables on our plates. Its a new, prosperous India we are talking about. Why should we look back on that period of gloom, despair and struggle against the world's mightiest empire? Why should we look back to Bhagat Singh?

Don't we just kill him again and again every year?

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