New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs stated on Friday (December 6) that India had lodged a “strong protest” with Pakistan over “objectionable remarks” made by a retired Pakistani naval commodore on Bhagat Singh, which led a civic body to inform a local court that it had dropped plans to rename a Lahore square after him.
This was informed by Minister of State for external affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Friday.
“Government of India has noted the recent reports regarding objectionable remarks made against Shaheed Bhagat Singh in Pakistan and has lodged a strong protest with the Government of Pakistan on the incident through diplomatic channels,” said the statement in answer to a question by Congress MP Manish Tewari.
The ministry added that India had also been “raising, with Pakistan, issues concerning attacks on cultural heritage, growing intolerance and lack of respect for minority communities in Pakistan”.
To another query, the MEA stated that, “Government and the entire nation recognise the invaluable contribution of Shaheed Bhagat Singh in India’s freedom struggle”.
“The death anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh is observed every year in India and abroad. India’s diplomatic Missions abroad also hold events to pay tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh,” replied Singh.
In December 1928, Bhagat Singh, along with Shivaram Rajguru, killed British police officer John Saunders in Lahore, mistakenly believing him to be responsible for Lala Lajpat Rai’s death. Singh was later convicted and hanged in March 1931 at the age of 23.
Plan to name public square dropped after former Pakistani military official’s objection
The Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported on November 10, that a former military official’s “awareness brief” was filed alongside documents submitted by the Metropolitan Corporation of Lahore to the Lahore High Court.
The report, signed by the corporation’s chief public relations officer, stated, “Denied, after receiving the application of petition, in the meanwhile, a reference was moved by Commodore Tariq Majeed (Retd.), briefed that, this is a forged/concocted case and the Shadman Chowk must not be named Bhagat Singh Chowk.”
In a four-page brief, retired Commodore Majeed argued that Bhagat Singh had “no role in the subcontinent’s freedom struggle.”
He described Singh as “not a revolutionary but a criminal a terrorist in today’s terms – as he killed a British police officer and for this crime he and his two accomplices were hanged.”
Majeed further contended that Singh, by his own declaration, was an atheist.
“Calling this criminal a “shaheed” is an extremely offensive and a deliberate insult to the concept of shaheed in Islam,” he stated.
The controversy dates back to December 2012, when the metropolitan corporation proposed renaming various roads, squares, and underpasses across Lahore, including the suggestion to rename Fawara Chowk Shadman as ‘Bhagat Singh Chowk.’
Following a newspaper announcement, objections were raised against the proposal, prompting the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, a local Pakistani NGO, to file a writ petition in the Lahore High Court advocating for the renaming in Singh’s honour.
In September 2018, the high court closed the case, directing Lahore’s mayor to decide on the renaming application “in accordance with law.” In March this year, the court sought responses from provincial and district governments after Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, chairman of the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation, filed contempt proceedings over the failure to make a decision on the proposal to rename Shadman Chowk after Singh.
