Bhagat Singh labelled as ‘militant’ not ‘martyr’, RTI reveals

In a 2017 TOI (Times of India) article, it was mentioned that Indian freedom fighter, Bhagat Singh in government records is not labelled as a martyr.

In a reply to an RTI query, the home ministry has said it has no record to show whether Bhagat Singh has been declared a martyr. Now, the grandnephew of Bhagat Singh, Yadavendra Singh, is planning to launch a campaign to get Bhagat Singh declared a martyr.

“According to Yadavendra, in April the home ministry had been asked in an RTI query as to when Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev were declared martyrs and, if not, what was the government doing to get them the tag,” a source as per TOI.

Bhagat Singh participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist.

He later took part in a largely symbolic bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and organized a hunger strike in jail, which was on the back of sympathetic coverage in Indian-owned newspapers.

It turned him into a household name in the Punjab region, and after his execution at age 23 into a martyr and folk hero in Northern India.