Bengaluru: “The youth must join hands and defeat forces that are dividing the country in the name of religion and destroying the secular texture of the country”, said Abhitej Singh, grand nephew of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh here on Tuesday.
Speaking at an interaction programme organised by the Patrakartara Adhyayana Kendra (journalists’ study centre) at the Bangalore Press Club, Abhitej expressed concern over growing intolerance in the society in the light of murder of rationalists like Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and M.M. Kalburgi.

“This is not the independent India, which Bhagat Singh dreamt of. His legacy has been diluted by the successive governments since Independence. The society has forgotten the values for which he fought,” he said.

Abhitej Singh said that Bhagat Singh fought for spiritual democracy, universal brotherhood, and to end disparity in society and communal disharmony in the name of religion, which is being misunderstood and misinterpreted by political parties. All the political parties use Bhagat Singh’s contribution towards the freedom struggle to exploit popular sentiment. He was not only a fearless revolutionary, he was also an intellectual and hard-working political activist. But his intellectual and political aspects, which made him dream of a socialist, secular, democratic and republican India has been forgotten, he said.

The governments and political parties equated Bhagat Singh with violence and bombs, which was totally wrong, he added.

“Both, the BJP and the Congress, were trying to impose their views on the society and had succeeded in creating a society of intolerance. They were using youth to divide the country in the name of caste and religion. This is a dangerous trend,” he said.

Inputs from agencies