Bharat Ratna for martyrs

The demand to confer the Bharat Ratna on Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Lala Lajpat Rai and other freedom fighters deserves to be welcomed and seconded unequivocally. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann urged the Union Government to do the needful in his address at a state-level function to mark Sarabha’s martyrdom day on Wednesday. The honour, which is bestowed in recognition of ‘exceptional service/performance of the highest order’, is long overdue for these lion-hearted sons of Punjab, the land of revolutionaries and warriors that also has the historical distinction of being the country’s sword arm.

Most of these national icons died young and will forever remain young in our collective memory. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were in their early twenties when they made the supreme sacrifice in 1931. Sarabha, who was Bhagat Singh’s idol, was just 19 when he was executed by the British government in 1915. And it was the death of 63-year-old Lala Lajpat Rai, who succumbed to injuries inflicted by cops during a brutal lathicharge in 1928, that was avenged by Bhagat Singh and his comrades by shooting dead a British police officer. The names of these martyrs are inextricably linked with each other and their contribution to India’s freedom struggle is immeasurable.

The Centre struck the right note earlier this year by naming the Chandigarh-Mohali airport after Bhagat Singh amid the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. This momentous decision also put an end to an unsavoury dispute between Punjab and Haryana over the airport’s nomenclature. The next logical step should be to befittingly honour Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries with the Bharat Ratna. The country’s highest civilian award has been conferred posthumously on several occasions. The fact that these freedom fighters died before the award was instituted in 1954 should not be an impediment. There are notable precedents — Sardar Patel (awarded in 1991) and Madan Mohan Malaviya (2015). The commemoration of 75 years of Independence would be truly complete if the ever-inspiring heroes whose martyrdom won us freedom are accorded their rightful place in the pantheon of Bharat’s Ratnas.