Celebrating Bhagat Singh in Delhi in September 2018

In Delhi, there were many functions in Delhi on 27th and 28th September and on 30th September, I was invited to speak at four different functions. First was held on 27th September in Mavlankar hall, it was organised by AAP Govt. Gopal Rai was chairing the function, wherein a fully packed hall, there were songs and cultural programmes.I was invited to speak Bhagat Singh's ideas. Organisers distributed Bhagat Singh badge, a calendar for 2019 on freedom fighters and one book-edited by me and Jagmohan Singh-Bhagat Singh aur unke sathiyon ke dastavez with a price tag of 350/ rupees.
 Some photographs of the function-

                 Second function was at Delhi University Arts block gate, organised by SFI. Gauhar Raza and me spoke here. I spoke for more than one hour on Bhagat Singh's relevance in present times. Some photographs of the function-

    Third function was organised by Collective group in Sabarmati lawns in JNU on 28th September evening. It was songs, readings and my lecture on Bhagat Singh's ideological perceptions. Some of the photographs-

Fourth function was organised by Nashishat at India Habitat Centre on 30th Deptember, where Karnika Kohli sung ghodi of Bhagat Singh in her melodious voice, which she sung in documentary Inqlab too.I was the only speaker and invited comments and questions too from audience. It was quite good programme conducted by K K Kohli and with him on dias were Ali Javed and Ramsharan Joshi.

Some photographs of that function too-

September Celebrations of Bhagat Singh at Patiala and Saharanpur

28th September is the birth anniversary date of Bhagat Singh. As in March-the martyrdom month of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, there are large number of functions and programmes held all over the country to pay tributes to the martyrs, in September too, a number of functions in the form of lectures, discussions, cultural programmes and mix of all are held throughout the country and some time abroad too. 

       September 2018 became more fulfilling as I spoke at six different programmes in three different cities-Patiala, Saharanpur and Delhi. While in Patiala, the day was marked by a lecture and play in Punjabi University on 11th September. Radical Punjab Students Union(RPSU) organised my lecture on Bhagat Singh's ideas on student movement and the need to hold elections to student union elections in the Universities of Punjab, suspended since Operation Blue Star in 1984. The gathering was good and I spoke about an hour and later invited discussion. The function also included a play in Punjabi-Chhipan ton Pehlan by Davindar Daman, played by Red Arts student group. Some photographs of this function are displayed here-

The next programme was in Saharanpur on 27th September, where I reached on 26th evening. Local Samajvadi party MLA Sanjay Garg and Kiranjit Sandhu, nephew of Bhagat Singh took me to the secret shelter places of Bhagat Singh and his comrades in Saharanpur, from where Shiv Verma, Jaidev Kapoor and Gaya Prasad Katiyar were arrested. They lived in a Muslim locality and I met the descendants of the family, who had rented the room to revolutionaries. The family of four Muslim brothers live together and are proud of the past events. Closeby is a temple, which was also used by Bhagat Singh for bomb-making and living underground. We also visited descendants of Justice Agha Haider, who had protested against the beating of revolutionaries in Tribunal court itself, he was later replaced. Justice Haider was a judge of Allahabad High Court and part of Allahabad Bar, when Pandit Nehru was also part of the bar. Clicked many old historic photographs from their album. Grandson of  justice is also a practising lawyer and greatgrandchildren are also trained in law. Justice Haider died in 1947 and his family was saved with special instructions from Pandit Nehru. Some photographs of Saharanpur too-