Chandigarh: A member of parliament from Punjab’s Sangrur, Simranjit Singh Mann, landed in a controversy, after calling revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh a “terrorist.”When asked about his views on Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale – who was allegedly mentioned as a “terrorist” in the Punjabi University syllabus – Mann said he was a big national leader of Sikhs who fought for the community. After winning the Sangrur by-poll, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Mann attributed his victory to Bhindranwale.The head of a Sikh religious institute, Bhindrawala was killed in Operation Blue Star in 1984.The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called Mann’s statement “shameful and pitiful.”In a tweet on Friday, July 15, the party said Mann calling Bhagat Singh a “terrorist” was “disgraceful and disrespectful.”“Punjabis are connected to the ideology of Bhagat Singh & we strongly condemn this irresponsible comment,” it addedShameful and pitiful!Sangrur MP, Simranjeet Singh Mann, calling revolutionary freedom fighter Bhagat Singh a “terrorist” is disgraceful and disrespectfulPunjabis are connected to the ideology of Bhagat Singh & we strongly condemn this irresponsible comment#ShaheedBhagatSingh https://t.co/EveKRBOn4q— AAP Punjab (@AAPPunjab) July 15, 2022Later, Punjab minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer held a press conference and demanded an unconditional apology from the Sangrur MP for calling the legendary freedom fighter a “terrorist.”Congress MLA and former state home minister, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, also criticised Mann, saying that “he must learn to differentiate between those who give their lives for the country and those who give their lives against the country.”The young man (Bhagat Singh) who fought and sacrificed for the freedom of the country is today being called a terrorist.Simranjit Mann Ji Learn to differentiate between those who give their lives for the country and those who give their lives against the country.— Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (@Sukhjinder_INC) July 15, 2022AAP’s Punjab MP Raghav Chadha also condemned the Sangrur MP’s statement. “Shameful that some call him a terrorist. Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh is a hero, a patriot, a revolutionary and a true son of the soil,” he wrote on Twitter.Shameful that some call him a terrorist. Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh is a hero, a patriot, a revolutionary and a true son of the soil.INQUILAB ZINDABAD! pic.twitter.com/7mpTalt3g1— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) July 15, 2022What did the Sangrur MP say?During his visit to Haryana’s Karnal on July 14, local media asked Simranjit Singh Mann for his views on Punjab’s long-pending demand to declare Chandigarh International Airport after Bhagat Singh.“Bhagat Singh had killed a young, English police officer. He had killed an ‘Amritdhari’ Sikh constable, Channan Singh. He had also hurled a bomb at the National Assembly at that time. Now you tell me whether Bhagat Singh was a terrorist or not,” the Sangrur MP said.“Was the killing of innocent police officers and throwing bombs in parliament an act of decency?” asked Mann.Added to that, Mann also did not find any objection to the pro-Khalistan (talk of a separate Sikh state) slogans found outside DAV School and Dyal Singh College in Karnal last month. US-based pro-Khalistani group, Sikh for Justice, reportedly claimed responsibility for the incident.“Karnal must go to Punjab along with Saharanpur and Meerut divisions,” he added.Also read: Bhagat Singh Is Not the Man the Right Wants You to Think He IsViews of academiciansProfessor Chaman Lal, a retired professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has written several books on Bhagat Singh, told The Wire that two sets of ideologies are prevalent in Punjab.First, there is an ideological perspective around Khalistan and Bhindranwale, which is basically creating a separate state based on religion. The second one is Bhagat Singh’s secular and socialist perspective, inspired from the Russian revolution, Chaman said. He wanted to build a kind of society where workers and peasants had more freedom to live a dignified life.He referred to the farmers’ movement where protesters were holding the photograph of Bhagat Singh and even reading his books because they knew that he was their hero, who fought for workers’ rights.Ever since Simranjit Singh Mann, the SAD (Amritsar) president and Khalistan proponent, won from Sangrur, there has been an attempt to make Bhindranwale a hero and present Bhagat Singh in negative light, the professor said. The seat was considered to be AAP’s stronghold, as Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had won it twice.“But any attempt to do this will fizzle out. Because there is no bigger hero than Bhagat Singh not only in Punjab but across the country,” he added.“He will continue to inspire people to respect all religions and work for the empowerment of the working class in order to build a just and peaceful society,” he added.Bhagat Singh’s ideologyProfessor Chaman Lal said that in pre-independence India, revolutionary and non-violent freedom struggles ran parallel to each other right from the time Britishers set up its colony through East India Company in early 18th century. Bhagat Singh was drawn towards the revolutionary movement right from the beginning of his youth.He explained the turnaround in his life was the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai, a great Indian revolutionary, in 1928.Bhagat Singh and his comrades persuaded Rai to lead the protest when the Simon Commission would visit Lahore. The Commission was set up by the British government to report on the political situation in India but political parties boycotted it since there was no Indian member in that Commission.When Rai was leading the procession, he was lathi-charged by the then Lahore police superintendent James Scott and his deputy John Saunders. He later succumbed to his injuries. That time, Basanti Devi, the widow of great revolutionary Chittaranjan Das, who was the mentor of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, had asked why the youth of the country was sleeping to the brutal killing of a great revolutionary.After Basanti Devi’s call, Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries took upon themselves to avenge Rai’s death and restore the dignity of the nation, the professor said.A month after Rai’s death, Bhagat Singh killed Saunders with help of Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandra Shekhar Azad.He said that they had no intention to kill Chanan Singh, a head constable. But he began chasing Bhagat Singh and others.Azad, who was supervising the whole operation, asked Channan to stop chasing them. When he did not stop, Azad fired at him not with the intention to kill him but to stop him. “He later died reportedly due to delay in proper treatment, as was normally the case then with Indians,” said the professor.“We all know the remaining history how he hurled bombs at the national assembly not with intention to kill anyone. It was a very low intensity bomb. The intention behind his self-arrest was to take the Indian freedom struggle to the next level,” he added.“If Bhagat Singh was a terrorist, why did he surrender himself to police authorities? Why did he not eat for 110 days – the longest in the Indian freedom struggle history – for the rights of his fellow inmates,” he asked.Chaman said the biggest contribution of Bhagat Singh was that he gave a perspective to India’s revolutionary movement. He gave a socialist perspective on how India as a country would be after independence.“This perspective changed the course of the entire freedom struggle thereafter. If Bhagat Singh became a supreme revolutionary, it was because of his ideological conviction,” he said.
