Shaheed Bhagat Singh's birth centenary celebrated

New Delhi, Sep 28 (UNI) It is easy to kill individuals but you cannot kill ideas. Great empires crumbled while the ideas survived.

These were the words of revolutionary Bhagat Singh who wanted to die so that his death would inspire the youth of India to unite and fight the British Empire.

Thousands of people celebrated the birth centenary of the great revolutionary at Shaheed Park with great enthusiasm and respect today.

The celebration, organised by Shaheed Bhagat Singh Birth Centenary Celebration Comittee, also marked the conclusion of year-long celebration that began exactly a year ago and was organised at different parts of the country to commemorate the occasion.

The event was inaugurated with the garlanding of the statues of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev by the committee president Krishna Chakraborty and other members.

In his address, Mr Chakraborty remembered the unparalleled contributions of Bhagat Singh to free India from the clutches of the British.

Mentioning Bhagat Singh as a youth revolutionary and a socialist he said, ''Bhagat Singh wanted a society free from all the oppression and exploitation of man by man.'' The year-long celebration was organised in different parts of the country through various programmes like cycle rally, signature campaign, seminars and other programmes in remembrance of the legendary martyr.

Bhagat Singh, born in 1907 in Punjab, was largely influenced by his ancestors who had the history of devotion towards the nation.

The Jallianwala Bagh tragedy moved him to jump into the freedom struggle.

He later became a member of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). Bhagat Singh was arrested in the Assembly Bomb Case and was later hanged in the trial that followed.

He was a great patriot, a freedom fighter and a martyr who sacrificed his life for the country. As a pioneer socialist who fought against imperialism and as a youth revoutionary, he inspires the Indian youth even today.

UNI