Chandigarh airport to be re-named after Bhagat Singh: Modi in Mann Ki Baat
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (September 25) announced the Chandigarh airport would be re-named after Bhagat Singh ahead of the birth anniversary of the Indian revolutionary on September 28.
“Just before his birth anniversary, as a tribute, an important decision has been taken, it has been decided that the Chandigarh airport will now be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. It has been in the waiting for a long time. I congratulate the people of Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana and of the entire country of this decision,” Modi said during the 93rd episode of his radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’.
Asserting that memorials of martyrs and places and institutions named after them inspire citizens with a sense of duty, Modi said the BJP government has always worked on this front, one of the recent examples being the setting up of the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on the Kartavya Path (formerly Rajpath).
The Centre’s decision is being seen as a move to upstage the effort of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to idolise the freedom fighter and uphold his legacy in the state. It was at Bhagat Singh’s village Khatkar Kalan where Bhagwant Mann took oath as the new chief minister of the state. The government had later announced the death anniversary (on March 23) of the martyr, immensely popular among the youth, as a public holiday across the state.
During his address, Modi also reminded listeners that, besides being the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh, September 28 was also the fifth anniversary of India’s surgical strike, the day the Indian Army allegedly stormed into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and destroyed terror launch pads and terror camps in retaliation to the terror attack on the Uri army base in Jammu and Kashmir in which 18 soldiers lost their lives.
“Hasn’t the Josh risen!! Let us celebrate the campaign of the ongoing Amrit Mahotsav in our country with full enthusiasm, sharing our happiness with everyone,” Modi said, borrowing from the ‘How’s the Josh’ dialogue in Vicky Kaushal-starrer film Uri, inspired by the surgical strike.
The prime minister also spoke about the re-introduction of cheetahs in India, and said Indians would be able to see the beasts once a task force formed to look after their adaptability in the Indian jungle, approves the same. Till the clearance is made, the prime minister asked Indians to participate in competition to provide a name for the campaign to save cheetahs and how the eight big cats from South Africa and Namibia should be named.
“I appeal to all of you to participate in this competition. Who knows…you may be the first to get an opportunity to see a cheetah as a reward,” he said.