Bhagat Memorial Foundation has given a befitting reply to Punjab government’s argument against making Shadman Chowk a Bhagat Singh Chowk. When Lahore High Court issued a contempt notice to Punjab government and gave it a last chance to resolve the matter of making Bhagat Singh Chowk, government representatives strongly objected to the name Bhagat Singh and called Bhagat Singh a criminal and terrorist. Read the reply given by Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation in a press conference on the government’s affidavit. Foundation’s chairman Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi has sent this press note online to Indus News TV –
PRESS NOTE
Punjab government’s reply to the High Court on making Shadman Chowk a Bhagat Singh Chowk and Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation’s counter reply
Nazreen, Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation Lahore is a well-known name, which is famous at the international level, everyone knows this.
People from different regions, different communities or different castes and religions of the then India participated in the revolutionary movement against the British rule. Apart from the revolutionary movement, many important personalities also started movements to end foreign slavery. Among them was Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, due to whom we are a part of a country like Pakistan, which is rich in natural resources.
The people of Pakistan know very well that all these are facts recorded in history and we cannot deny them. We cannot also deny the fact that the sacrifices of the revolutionaries in the freedom movement gave a tough challenge to the British rule, among whom the whole world knows the name of Bhagat Singh, born in today’s Pakistan, and considers his ideas important for the welfare of humanity.
Remember the speech of Quaid-e-Azam which he gave after the blasts carried out by revolutionary youth in the Central Assembly. He not only praised the sacrificial personality of Bhagat Singh and his comrades, but also stood in their support with the strongest possible intention and questioned the British law and order and principles.
Now we come to the question in which the High Court decided to make Shadman Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk but it was not made. The answer given by the representatives of the Punjab government to the High Court on the question of contempt of court is quite ridiculous, a tampering with history and presenting the Islamic point of view in a distorted manner. Such an answer was given by the government to the High Court when they were given the last chance to respond to the contempt case.
We are not only ready to answer the things said in the reply filed by the government representative in detail, but will also take every sentence of his as a challenge and put forth our side in the High Court, because Bhagat Singh is a revolutionary son born on the soil of Pakistan and we cannot let the history of our country be destroyed for pseudo political purposes.
Instead of presenting any concrete stand against the construction of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk and installation of Bhagat Singh’s statue there, the Punjab government has made serious allegations, we are answering them one by one. The first of which is that Assistant Advocate General Asgar Leghari on behalf of the Punjab government has challenged the decision of the High Court in his reply and he feels that without examining the Constitution and history of the country, the honorable judges in the High Court took the decision to name Shadman Chowk as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Chowk.
According to the Punjab government, Bhagat Singh was not a revolutionary, freedom fighter and martyr, but a criminal and a terrorist in today’s definition. If this was the case then they have questioned the views of Quaid-e-Azam. Then they should say that Quaid-e-Azam’s views were those of encouraging criminals and terrorists and his views were not only wrong but also anti-Islam. If the Punjab government can say this in clear words then we will stand in support of Quaid-e-Azam, who stood in defence of Bhagat Singh against the British government.
Here it also becomes clear that in reality the view that the colonial British government once had about Bhagat Singh, is almost the same view that the representatives of the current Punjab government are holding that he was a criminal, murderer, terrorist. Whereas, Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation has taken forward the same thing that Quaid-e-Azam had said in his speech in 1929, which includes justice, humanity, love, progress of society and respect for the revolutionary spirit of the youth.
The Punjab government is calling the plan to preserve the memory of the great revolutionary born in Pakistan a despicable one. By doing so, it is putting a question mark on the history of Lahore and sending a message of hatred towards everything that has enhanced the prestige of our history and land in the territory of today’s Pakistan. The Lahore Central Jail itself is an important page in the history of the world because Bhagat Singh and his two companions were hanged prematurely.
The Punjab government says that no one becomes a revolutionary at the age of 23, when the age of puberty is seven years. This statement is absolutely ridiculous. There have been many revolutionaries at a very young age and many religious figures have also spread knowledge and led at a very young age, perhaps the government representatives who wrote the 16-page reply are not aware of this. Can the young fighters in Palestine be called criminals? Whereas the Israeli rulers consider them criminals and terrorists.
Now we come to the fact that Bhagat Singh called himself an atheist and in this context, calling him a martyr is equating him with martyrs for Islam. This concept is the creation of the Punjab government. Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation has never made such a comparison. Martyrdom is the sacrifice for the welfare of humanity and for the path of peace by following the message of Islam. This is a noble aim. But, our Prophet has also said in his last sermon that discrimination on any basis is not justified, it is not justified for the West to rule over the East or for a white person to rule over a black person. Then how did fighting against British slavery become against Islam.
Government representatives should clearly state what is written in that article of Bhagat Singh, which is titled – Why I am an Atheist. He has clearly written in that article that the kind of discrimination and crime that is there in our society, it is against Islam.
It is wrong to make excuses for God, the system and rulers present in the society are responsible for this. We challenge the representatives of the government to find any other meaning of this article.
In the government’s affidavit, Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation has been asked that naming any place in Pakistan after an atheist is not acceptable and Islam prohibits human statues?
This question is also strange. Who will be given the status of an atheist, can the names of Lahore and Rawalpindi be erased? As far as the human statues are concerned, there are statues of many personalities including Quaid-e-Azam in Pakistan, will the representatives of the Punjab government support their removal too?
The representatives of the Punjab government need to gather more information and understand about Bhagat Singh. By calling him a follower of Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji, they are contradicting their own statement, because Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji were not atheists and a large number of officers and soldiers in the rule of both were Muslims.
Finally, the reply filed by the government questions the investigation by security agencies into the support received by Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation and its officials and the money spent on its activities. We are ready for any investigation, any agency can do this work. Of course, we get moral support from within and outside the country, the only reason for which is that we dream of humanity, justice, peace, progress, a better future for the youth and taking the country to greater heights. We are not a political party that has the skill to divide society, pit brother against brother and take the country on the path of destruction and through this manipulation they make or break governments.
The court has further hearing on January 17, 2025, we will give our reply to the High Court with full facts and in accordance with the Constitution of Pakistan. We also want to thank the Punjab government that through this excuse, they have provided everyone with a fresh reason to know a hero born on the soil of Pakistan, on which Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation is proud.
