Bhagat Singh's birth anniversary: Why real heroes moving into oblivion?
The
bygone
Sunday
marked
107th
birth
anniversary
of
legendary
freedom
fighter,
but
hardly
anyone
of
us
had
any
idea
regarding
this.
Except
the
Nehru-Gandhi
family
members,
all
other
freedom
fighters
and
leaders
have
only
been
limited
to
the
NCERT
history
books.
Very
few
of
us
really
remember
them
or
have
any
idea
of
their
birth
or
death
anniversaries.
Bhagat
Singh
is
no
different.
The
man
who
shook
the
entire
fabric
of
a
then-enslaved
nation
with
his
earnest
and
fervent
patriotism,
has
now
vanished
from
people's
memory.
Not
only
people,
the
Government
and
the
media
took
less
interest
in
reviving
their
legacy.
Until
the
Modi-led
Government
comes
at
the
helm
of
affairs
at
the
Centre,
the
previous
Governments
be
it
NDA,
UF
or
the
Congress-led
UPA
took
no
effort
to
liven
up
these
forgotten
heroes.
Bhagat Singh not even a martyr in Government records
Bhagat
Singh's
sacrifice
might
have
inspired
many,
but
in
Government
records
Bhagat
Singh
is
not
a
martyr.
In
2013,
an
RTI
revealed
that
the
Home
Ministry
does
not
have
any
record
to
show
whether
Bhagat
Singh
has
been
declared
a
martyr
or
not.
Replying on RTI query, the Home Ministry said that it had no record to show whether Bhagat Singh had been declared martyr. The reply also said it had no information on what the government was doing about it.
Ads on Nehru-Gandhi family members cost Govt Rs 53 crore !
It seems the previous Congress-led UPA was less generous in remembering a martyrs or leaders outside the Nehru-Gandhi family. According to reports, more than a third of UPA-II's spending on newspaper advertisements for birth and death anniversaries of former leaders were on Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Of the total Rs 142.3 crore spent on newspaper advertisements on former leaders, Rs 53.2 crore was used for ads on these three.
According to the directorate of advertisement and visual publicity (DAVP), in the five years between 2008-09 and 2012-13, the Government spent Rs 38.3 crore on ads on Mahatma Gandhi's death and birth anniversary. He was followed by Rajiv Gandhi, B R Ambedkar, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. These five leaders accounted for over Rs 100 crore of the ad spending, more than two-thirds of the total expenditure.
The expenditure on commemorating the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev was mere Rs 9.7 crore, while the ad spending on birthdays of Netaji was Rs 50 lakh only.
Congress obsessed with Gandhi-Nehru family
Over the last 60 years, on a rough estimate 650 Central and State Government programmes, projects and national and State level institutions involving public expenditure of lakhs of crores of rupees have been named after members of Gandhi-Nehru family.
There are nearly 650 social welfare schemes in the name of Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
According to an RTI report accessed by IBNlive, 12 Central and 52 state schemes, 28 sports tournaments and trophies, 19 stadiums, 5 airports and ports, 98 educational institutions, 51 awards, 15 fellowships, 15 national sanctuaries and parks, 39 hospitals and medical institutions, 37 institutions, chairs and festivals and 74 roads, buildings and places are named after 3 members of the Nehru-Gandhi family.
Are other leaders and martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Lal Bahadur Shastri , Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and B R Ambedkar anyway less important than Gandhi trio?