84 years ago, on March 23rd 1931, three famous freedom fighters, Bhagat Singh, Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar, were executed. To commemorate the event Jagmeet Singh Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) of Canada gave the following speech:
"Today I rise to commemorate three freedom fighters who opposed British oppression in India and fought for the independence of India.
In fact those three individuals are: Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivram Rajguru. March 23rd 1931 is what is recognized as martyrdom day. They fought for an independent place and an independent country. They fought for a place which would respect human rights, which would respect freedom, which would respect the dignity of life.
However it's ironic that three days earlier, March 20th in the year 2000 there was very heinous massacres that occurred in India which were perpetrated ostensibly by the Indian government itself. This is not the type of India that these three brave souls gave their lives to defend. This is not the India these brave souls fought independence for. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapat and Shivram Rajguru fought for a free and independent country, not a country which is responsible for mass human rights violations. Particularly what happened in Chattisinghpora massacre which is connected with the Pathribal killings as well as the Barakpora killings.
Bhagat Singh stated, and it is a very strong and powerful quote: "It is easy to kill individuals, but you cannot kill the ideas. Great empires crumbled while their ideas survived."
In memory of Bhagat Singh let us hope that we can move towards a society where we can all live in freedom and in justice."
Jagmeet Singh's Speech in Parliament by desitarka