Congress MP shares Nehru's tribute to Bhagat Singh, says ‘parties he'd have…’

In an article published in The Bombay Chronicle, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote a heartfelt tribute to Bhagat Singh and revealed the reason behind his “absolute silence” during the revolutionary's last days.

As several politicians and political parties, including the BJP, paid tribute to India's charismatic revolutionary Bhagat Singh on this 115th birth anniversary, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that parties whose ideology he would have “bitterly opposed are trying to appropriate his legacy.” Sharing a tribute by Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, published in 1931 after Bhagat Singh's execution, Jairam Ramesh said that the pillar of Congress's Bharat Jodo Yatra is what the revolutionary fought for.

In an article published in The Bombay Chronicle, Jawaharlal Nehru revealed the reason behind his “absolute silence” during Bhagat Singh's last days.

“Today is 21st day of #BharatJodoYatra & 115th birth anniversary of great revolutionary Bhagat Singh. Parties whose ideology he’d have bitterly opposed are trying to appropriate his legacy, whereas pillars of @bharatjodo is what he fought for. Sharing Nehru's 1931 tribute to him,” Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communication, posted on Twitter.

In an article published in The Bombay Chronicle, an English-language newspaper published from Mumbai (then Bombay), Nehru wrote a heartfelt tribute to Bhagat Singh and revealed the reason behind his “absolute silence” during Singh's last days.

“I have remained absolutely silent during their last days lest a word of mine may injure the prospect of commutation. I have remained silent though I felt like bursting, and now all is over. Not all of us could save him who was so dear to us and whose magnificent courage and sacrifice have been an inspiration to the youth of India. India today cannot even save her dearly loved children from the gallows,” Nehru said, according to the snippet shared by Ramesh.

“There will be hartals and mourning processions everywhere. There will be sorrow in the land at our utter helplessness but there will also be pride in him who is no more, and when England speaks to us and talks of a settlement there will be the corpse of Bhagat Singh between us, lest we forget,” he added.

Bhagat Singh, Raj Guru and Sukhdev were executed on March 23, 1931, at Lahore for their involvement in the Lahore Conspiracy Case.