HC order on martyr a slap for Congress, SAD: Mann

Chandigarh, April 17 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision redeeming the honour of martyr Bakshish Singh was a "tight slap on the faces of the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)" and asked all the past governments in Punjab and the Centre to apologise to his aggrieved family.

Bakshish Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha and five others were hanged by the British for waging war against the emperor in the Lahore Conspiracy Case in November 1915. Bakshish Singh was only 26 years old at that time. The British government also confiscated 33 acres of his land in 1916.

After Independence, the martyr's family fought 71 years for restoration of the confiscated property. In 1988, the government put the value of the 33 acres at Rs 13,000. 

The high court, in its order on Tuesday, awarded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh per acre to the family. 

The high court put successive governments in Punjab and at the Centre in the dock, saying they did not do enough for the revolutionaries who fought selflessly for achieving freedom for the country. 

Maan called the government response to the martyr and his family a disgrace. "The subsequent governments could have shown the gesture of visiting the martyrs' families after Independence and allotted them land in lieu of the one confiscated by the British," he said in a statement.

The Congress and the SAD governments have ruled Punjab since 1947.