Kanhaiya, Vemula are Bhagat Singhs of today, says his nephew

New Delhi, Mar 29: Kanhaiya Kumar, Rohith Vemula and every youth who is concerned about the issues in the country and raises his voice is present era's Bhagat Singh, the martyr's nephew Jagmohan Singh said here today. "They all are Bhagat Singhs.

Kanhaiya, Rohith and every youth who is concerned about the country and raises the issue has every right to be compared to him.

This is what disturbs the government and they fabricate cases against those who raise their voices," he said on sidelines of a lecture at JNU. Asked about Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's remarks comparing Kanhaiya to Bhagat Singh, which kicked off a controversy, he said, " I agree with him (Tharoor).

Kanhaiya is following the ideology of Bhagat Singh and performing well intellectually and politically by raising issues concerning the society. Rohith also turned a martyr doing so".

Jagmohan, who is a human rights activist and has digitized most of the essential writings of Bhagat Singh, was here to address the JNU students on the topic "Sedition law and freedom struggle: Bhagat Singh's point of view". "Sedition is the last resort for every government.

When they have no answers to the questions being raised by certain people who are seen as activists in the society, the government uses the sedition law then," he said during the lecture.

Former professor at Punjab Agricultural University, Jagmohan, who was also charged with sedition two decades back when he published a report on 1984 anti-Sikh riots, said, "Bhagat Singh used to say that government always has a notion that people are in habit of raising the issues and its sedition law which balances the act. I cannot agree more with him on this".

"They talk of installing flagpoles everywhere but RSS headquarters doesn't have one. They want to give respect to the national flag but not to the Preamble of the constitution. They talk of subsidies to university but never talk of subsidies that have never reached the poor," he said.

"BJP today wants to celebrate Bhagat Singh but is hindering them to name an airport in his name. Why is this happening primarily because all our decisions are taken somehwere in Nagpur," he added.

Jagmohan, was speaking during the "Azaadi lecture series" at JNU's administration block which has been the venue of protest ever since its student union president Kanhaiya was arrested in a sedition case over an event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

PTI