Shaheed Bhagat Singh is being remembered on his 115th birth anniversary today on September 28, 2022. Its important to understand the ideology he had or groomed himself with before going into the Gandhi controversy that not only put the Mahatma in question but also has a bigger perspective in the struggle for freedom movement. Gandhi’s ‘Satyagraha’ or non-violence theory was not accepted to many including Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The reason Gandhi after Tripurari Congress commented, “Pattabhi Sitaramayya’s defeat is my defeat”. This led the resignation of Netaji Bose from the Congress.

Since his childhood, Bhagat Singh was a rebellion and refused to bow down in front of the British. He epitomized Sardar Kartar Singh Sarabha, the founding-member of the Ghadar Party since his youth days. He became a follower of communism. Singh was never a Gandhi admirer as he refused to accept his non-violence theory and turned an ardent admirer of Mikhail Bakunin, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky.

The Gandhi controversy:
There is a common belief that had Ganadhi wanted then he could have the execution of Bhagat Singh but he did nothing and rest is history. He had managed to have 90,000 political prisoners, who were not members of his Satyagraha movement, released under the gandhi-Irwin Pact. Though, gandhi always said he was a great admirer of Bhagat Singh’s patriotism but history is a witness that he did nothing to protect the three radical freedom fighters from gallows. However, there is another perspective to the entire story.

Many say Gandhi had tried to protect the three and wrote to the Viceroy on the day of their execution, pleading for commutation, reached late.