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After 7 yrs of political wrangling, Chandigarh Airport to be named after Bhagat Singh
The announcement comes around a month after the governments of Punjab and Haryana reached a consensus over naming the international airport after Bhagat Singh, ending a seven-year deadlock over the airport’s name.
The dust has finally settled on a seven-year-old political tussle between Punjab and Haryana over renaming the Chandigarh International Airport, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announcing that the terminal will be named after Bhagat Singh, one of the great revolutionaries of India’s freedom struggle.
The PM, during his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, said that the Chandigarh airport will be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh as a tribute to the great freedom fighter. The name change will be effected on September 28, on the freedom fighter’s birth anniversary.
The announcement comes around a month after the governments of Punjab and Haryana reached a consensus over naming the international airport after Bhagat Singh, ending a seven-year deadlock over the airport’s name. The decision had come after Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Haryana deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala held a meeting over the issue in August.
Mann thanked the Prime Minister for fulfilling the long-pending demand of Punjabis,and that too on the revolutionary’s birth anniversary. “Finally our efforts have paid off. On behalf of Punjab, we welcome the decision of naming the Chandigarh airport after Shaheed Bhagat Singh ji,” Mann said in a tweet in Punjabi.
Hailing the PM’s move, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the young generation should draw inspiration from Bhagat Singh’s sacrifice and established values.
Rakesh Ranjan Sahay, chief executive officer (CEO), Chandigarh International Airport said, we are waiting for official orders, following which the names on the signboards will be changed.
Mohali airport versus Chandigarh airport
The ₹485-crore Chandigarh Airport Project is a joint venture of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the governments of Punjab and Haryana. Punjab and Haryana have 24.5% share each, while the AAI has 51% share.
After the airport’s inauguration on September 11, 2015, Haryana had insisted that the international airport, a joint venture of the two states, be named after Chandigarh airport, the common capital of the two neighbouring states instead of Mohali Airport.
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Punjab had given 307-acre land in Mohali for the airport project. The airport runway is located in Chandigarh while the international terminal is located on the south side of the runway in Jhiurheri village, Mohali.
Bhagat Singh versus Mangel Sen
Later, the Congress government, led by former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda agreed to name the airport after Bhagat Singh, as demanded by the Punjab government.
However, after the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government took the reins, it demanded that the airport be named after RSS ideologue Mangel Sen.
In 2017, the Punjab government passed a resolution that the Chandigarh International Airport be named “Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Mohali” to which Haryana vehemently objected, claiming that it was a move to stake claim over the airport.
The Haryana government, who said they did not have an objection to the airport being named after Bhagat Singh, but did not want Mohali, the Punjab district where the airport is situated, to feature in its name.
