Protest planned outside Bhagat Singh hideout as Punjab observes martyrdom day today

Kumar is a retired railway employee and author of 16 books out of which 12 are related to the history of India’s freedom struggle. This place used to be a hideout for freedom fighters – Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Vijay Kumar Sinha, Dr Gaya Prasad, Mahabir Singh and Jai Gopal, said Kumar.

The Punjab government asked for documents from Kumar on the basis of his book “Secret hideout”. The archaeology department had later issued a notification to declare it a protected monument and finally on December 17, 2015, the department of tourism and cultural affairs, Punjab, declared it a protected monument. However nothing happened afterwards. Neither any step was taken to take over the building nor any funds were allocated for it. Now, as the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev will be observed on Thursday, Naujawan Bharat Sabha (NBS) has planned to stage a protest outside this house in Turi Bazar.

“Last year the Mann government had just been formed. We had great hopes from it as he talks about ideology of Bhagat Singh all the time. But we are very disappointed that the CM has not even allocated any budget for this hideout, let alone visiting the site,” Manga Azad from NBS said, adding that the archaeology department had put up a board of “protected monument” outside this building, but even that is missing now.

“Tenants are living inside the building. This is no way to protect our history. It is so painful to see such casual approach of governments after governments over such a sensitive issue and hence they force us to lodge protests,” he said.

Kumar said, “This place remained a hideout for revolutionaries from August 10, 1928, till February 9, 1929, as the British police had discovered it by then. Revolutionaries used to make strategies at this place as to how to throw the British out of the country. They also used to do shooting practice as the proof of it had been found at this place.”

Revolutionaries used to change their identity and appearance while travelling on their way to secret hideouts. Bhagat Singh’s hair and beard were also cut at this place to hide his identity from the British, revealed Kumar.

As of now the building is under the control of Krishna Bhagti Satsung Trust and this control has been going on for the past many decades. The ground floor has two shops where one shop is being run as a ‘kirana’ store and the other by some accountant. The latter remains closed for most of the time. On the first floor lives a tailor with his family. No changes have been done to the building till now, claimed Kumar. Earlier, on the ground floor, freedom fighters-cum-doctors used to run their clinics, while on the first floor the hideout was located. Nand Kishore
Sharma, one of the trustees, had even claimed in the past that his grandfather Lahori Ram Shastri had met Bhagat Singh at the time.

Meanwhile, the Ferozepur district administration has asked the owners and tenants of the building not to alter the structure. They have even been asked not to sell the building. It has been learnt that Sharma himself had offered Rs 50,000 donation if the government takes over this building to make a museum in memory of revolutionaries, including Bhagat Singh.

In March 2018, a mega protest was held by residents of the area at Turi Bazar demanding the Punjab government to convert the building into a museum and even to preserve the building. In August 2017, the then cultural and tourism affairs minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had even promised a grant for the memorial.

Soon after the AAP government came to power, Kumar wrote to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann to look into this matter urgently. He wrote the first letter on March 17 last year.

“After the Punjab CM took oath at Khatkar Kalan, there was a ray of hope in me and the followers of Bhagat Singh’s ideology that he will definitely do something for this hideout. But even this government has disappointed us. We have written a few more letters in the past one year to the Punjab CM, and Tourism and Cultural Minister Anmol Gagan Maan but to no avail. Anmol Gagan Maan hasn’t even met us, though we had sought time from her office,” said Kumar. The Indian Express contacted Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman who said, “This project has to be carried out by the tourism department.”

Sukhdev Thapar’s birthplace

Naughara mohalla in Ludhiana is the birthplace of Sukhdev Thapar which was in a dilapidated condition, but after repeated representations by the martyr’s descendants, the previous Congress government had finally released Rs 50 lakh for the renovation of this place. “It was released by the then CM Captain Amarinder Singh on August 15, 2021.

The work of renovation was to be completed within three months but it is still going on at a snail’s pace. The road leading to the house also needs to be widened. The process is still going on. We request the AAP government to get the works completed soon,” said Tribhuvan Thapar, a descendant of Sukhdev Thapar.