Accord due status to the Jallianwala Bagh martyrs: Cheema to govt

Chandigarh, April 12: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stated on Friday that the befitting tribute to those who fell to the Michel O’ Dwyer’s of bullets this day on April 13, 1919, the grant of long overdue ‘martyr’s status’. It has urged the union and state governments to grant ‘martyrs’ status to them on this historic day.

         Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Harpal Singh Cheema said in a statement that the preceding governments holding the fort in the country for over seven decades have failed to grant due status to the martyrs which reflected their sick mindset, thus depriving them of the honour they deserved by virtue of the supreme sacrifices they made for the country, he lamented. He regretted that even after attaining independence from the British more than 72 years ago, they had miserably failed to take a call on this emotional issue.

         AAP leader further added that they, on the one hand the government was insisting on the British Parliament to tender apology for the horrendous pogrom, it had been dilly-dallying on the much-awaited status to the martyrs who lost their lives for the honour of their motherland.

         Accusing the Congress Party, BJP-SAD alliance governments in the state and the centre for delaying the process of grant of status, Cheema said those who lost their lives in the tragedy of such a magnitude had assembled there for the raising their voice against the then British rulers and not for merry-making.

         Cheema said the demand for according the ‘martyr’s status had been spotlighting for the past couple of decades as per the official records. He added that an Amritsar-based family had been fighting hard in this regard for the past 36 long years. Referring to a news report published in a widely circulated English daily from Chandigarh.

         Mahesh Bahl, whose grandfather, Hari Ram Bahl, a lawyer by profession, was among those massacred, had been fighting for the cause for over three decades now. Quoting his ‘bua’ (Father’s sister), an eye witness to the dying statement of his grandfather “I have sacrificed my life for my motherland, my joy would be doubled if my son also make a supreme sacrifice for the country”, Mahesh said. Cheema said that Mahesh had been going from pillar to post for 36 years, during he had met former MP Manmohan Singh, BJP stalwart L.K.Advani and other big wigs but to no avail.

         Cheema has demanded that the Narendra Modi government should announce the grant of status to the martyrs of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which he said, was long overdue. He also urged Captain Amarinder Singh government in the state to broach the issue with the centre government for the grant of status.