Let the ruling classes forget Bhagat Singh, the people of India will never!!!

In its craziness to cover the pomp and glamour of the IPL which is rapidly emerging as the new opium of Indian masses, the much celebrated Indian corporate media once again failed to pay deserving tribute to one of the greatest martyrs of the freedom movement. Yesterday was the 79th death anniversary of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh who was hanged till death along with Sukhdev and Rajguru on 23rd March 1931 in connection with their involvement in the Lahore Conspiracy Case.
One of their fellow revolutionary Ramprasad Bismill once wrote that “Shaheedon ki chitaaon par lagenge har baras mele, watan par marne walon ka yahi baaki nishaan hoga”. But leave about fairs at the funeral pyre of the martyrs, the ruling classes of the independent India have tried to ensure that every trace of the revolutionaries is erased from the psyche of Indian masses. Having failed in their attempt in doing so, they try to portray these martyrs as great patriots who used violent means to achieve independence from a foreign rule and now that the country has become independent, they are no more relevant. Thus they clip the revolutionary wings of these martyrs and sanitize them as harmless creatures who could pose no challenge to their exploitative and repressive rule.
But the truth is that Bhagat Singh and his comrades did not fight and gave up their life just to gain independence from an alien rule. Although freeing the nation from the shackles of colonial slavery was their immediate objective, their vision was to build a society which is based on equality and respect for the dignity of all human beings where the exploitation of a man by a man would be non-existent. Very few people are aware that Bhagat Singh was a great intellectual and a visionary. In a short lifespan of 23 years, he not only directly participated in the revolutionary activities but more importantly prepared a program for the Indian revolution learning from his own experiences as well as by reading the books by the revolutionaries all over the world including Marx,Engels,Lenin and Bukhanin (The proofs of which are found in his jail diary which was published only recently). They founded Hindustan Socialist Republican Assoication (HSRA) which openly declared that the aim of Indian independence movement must be not only be to throw the Britishers out of the country but also to uproot the material basis of exploitation and form a society on socialist basis which is free from exploitation and oppression.
Merely 3 days before the date of sentence, Bhagat Singh,Sukhdev and Rajguru wrote a letter to the governor of Punjab requesting him to kill them by shooting rather than hanging as they had declared a war against the British empire and hence are the war prisoners and they must be treated as such. In the same letter they also wrote the following :
“Let us declare that the state of war does exist and shall exist so long as the Indian toiling masses and the natural resources are being exploited by a handful of parasites. They may be purely British Capitalist or mixed British and Indian or even purely Indian. They may be carrying on their insidious exploitation through mixed or even on purely Indian bureaucratic apparatus.”
It is clear as a broad day light today that even though we gained independence from the British Raj, the new rulers of India have ensured that the Indian masses continue to live a life of misery and deprivation and remain divided on the grounds of caste, region, language and religion. The vulgar prosperity and ostentatious lifestyle of a tiny minority is being projected as the sign of the rapid development of the nation while the abject poverty, extreme inequality and rampant dispossession is conveniently overlooked as if it is the law of nature.
In such a troubling period when the capitalist exploitation in the era of globalization is wrecking havoc to the lives of the toiling masses, Bhagat Singh’s supreme sacrifice and his vision are relevant more than ever. They are an eternal source of inspiration to all those who refuse to accept any kind of exploitation and oppression as justified on any ground. His thoughts continue to act as a beacon of light to all those who have not lost hope of building a society which is just, freer and equal. That is why it is important to celebrate the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh but not merely as a customary ritual but to spread his revolutionary message to the nooks and corners of the country so that the revolutionary spirit is revitalized.
Inqlaab Zindabad!!
Revolutionary solute to the martyrs!!!