AAP condemns scrapping of plan to name square after Bhagat Singh in Lahore

Chandigarh: Punjab's ruling party AAP Monday condemned the scrapping of a proposal to rename Shadman Chowk in Pakistan's Lahore after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

The proposal, which also included erecting a statue of Bhagat Singh, was scrapped in light of an opinion by a retired military official, the district government of the capital of Pakistan's Punjab province told the Lahore High Court.

The retired military official, engaged by the government in a committee in the matter, in his observations claimed that Singh "was not a revolutionary but a criminal, in today's terms he was a terrorist, he killed a British police officer, and for this crime, he was hanged along with two accomplices." Reacting to the remarks, AAP leader and Anandpur Sahib MP Malvinder Singh Kang said the party will not tolerate the "insult" and urged the central government to seek an explanation from Pakistan.

"We follow the ideologies of Bhagat Singh and Dr B R Ambedkar, and their thoughts are our fundamental principles," Kang said.

"The AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab have made a historic decision to display portraits of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and Baba Saheb Dr B R Ambedkar in all government offices. Today, their portraits are displayed in every government office in Delhi and Punjab," he said.

Kang said Bhagat Singh, when he was hanged, belonged as much to Pakistan as he did to India.

"Pakistan should remember that when Bhagat Singh was hanged, the country was not yet partitioned. At that time, the issue was not whether Bhagat Singh belonged to India or Pakistan. The issue was only about gaining freedom from the British, who ruled India for 200 years," the lawmaker said.

When Bhagat Singh threw a bomb in the central state assembly, his intention was not to harm anyone but to "awaken the sleeping British government," he said.

Singh said that in his prison diary, Bhagat Singh wrote, " 'The foreign powers that are ruling here must leave because we can manage our own country.' The blueprint of how the country's social, political, and economic structure should be is also found in his diary."

He called the freedom fighter an inspiration to millions of people in the country.

"Pakistan should respect him," he asserted.

Kang said it was distressing that Assistant Advocate General of Pakistan's Punjab government, Asghar Leghari, made his remarks while representing Lahore Metropolitan Corporation in the high court.

The Shaheed-e-Azam Welfare Society of Lahore has been fighting for this cause for many years, he said.

He said the demand to rename the square to Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Chowk was justified because Bhagat Singh studied in Lahore.