Martyrs' day be declared a holiday: SAD MP urges LS Speaker

On the eve of martyrdom day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, SAD MP Prem Singh Chandumajra today urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to reserve two chairs in the House's Visitor's gallery from where the freedom fighter had thrown a bomb and declare March 23 a holiday.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader also said that the spot were the bomb exploded should be marked.

He along with his party colleagues today met Speaker Sumitra Mahajan and requested her to declare March 23 as a holiday in Parliament.

The SAD leader also urged the speaker to advice all MPs to visit Khatkal Kalan, the native village of the freedom fighter.

"I request you that the two seats or the area, from where they threw bombs in the House should be earmarked for posterity and a placard placed there.

"The spot in the House where the bomb was dropped should also be earmarked," Chandumajra said in a letter to Mahajan.

He said these initiatives would keep on reminding the young generations and law makers about the struggle of freedom fighters against the Colonial rule.

"This tribute was overdue," he said,adding that he had raised this issue in the House also.

On April 8, 1929, Bhagat Singh along with Batukeshwar Dutt, exploded two bombs in the then Central Legislative Assembly, the present Parliament House.

They had done so to protest against the policies of the British government in the country.

Singh along with Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged on March 23, 1931.

On the bravery of Singh, Chandumajra said that the bombs were thrown by the freedom fighter with the intention to make his voice heard and not to hurt anyone.

"It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill ideas. It takes a loud voice to make the deaf hear," he said.