‘Bhagat Singh & deities on currency can’t go together’

Tribune News Service

Vishav Bharti

Chandigarh, October 29

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has always tried to give a special place to Bhagat Singh since it came to power in the state. Just before taking oath as the Chief Minister at Khatkar Kalan, Bhagwant Mann had announced that there would be no CM photo in government offices as per the past practice and now pictures of only Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and Dr B R Ambedkar would be put up at all offices.

Sheer opportunism

This is sheer opportunism. When you want to woo Punjab voters, you talk about Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar and later to attract the attention of Gujarat voters, you talk religion. —Prof Jagmohan Singh, Nephew of Bhagat Singh

Apparently to woo Hindu voters in Gujarat ahead of Assembly elections, AAP’s national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has now demanded that the Centre should print images of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha on currency notes to bring “economic prosperity” to 130 crore Indians.

However, the political gimmick of the Delhi Chief Minister has not gone well with the kin of the martyr and scholars studying Bhagat Singh. They say that out of sheer political opportunism, AAP has been acting completely against the ideology of Bhagat Singh.

Ludhiana-based Prof Jagmohan Singh, who is nephew of Bhagat Singh (his younger sister’s son), says that it is not for the first time that AAP has acted contrary to Bhagat Singh’s ideas. “One is expected to defend his idea till last breath. That is why we celebrate Bhagat Singh even nine decades after his martyrdom. This is sheer opportunism that when you want to woo Punjab voters, you talk about Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar and later to attract the attention of Gujarat voters, you talk religion.”

By making such demands, AAP not only deviates from Bhagat Singh’s ideology, but also from Ambedkar.

Another nephew of the martyr, Saharanpur-based Kiranjeet Singh, who is son of his younger brother Kultar Singh, says that it is completely wrong to cherry pick things from Bhagat Singh’s writings and use him just as a hollow symbol. “It is dishonesty and political opportunism when on one hand we eulogise the martyr and on the other hail the religious symbols. One should not forget that Bhagat Singh also wrote ‘Why I am an Atheist’ in which he clears his position about religion and God.”

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