'Punjab has sacrificed many children for India': PM Modi

Ferozepur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday hailed the sacrifice of the youth of Punjab in the freedom struggle, paying homage to the martyrs Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Batukeshwar Dutt.

"Punjab is a land that has sacrificed so many of its children for the nation, be it in the freedom struggle or the army. Bhagat Singh: this name has the strength to inspire so many people to live and die for the nation," Prime Minister Modi said at a rally here.

"I have come here today to salute the great tradition of those brave freedom fighters," he added.

Prime Minister Modi further stated that he has a special relationship with Punjab that he is eager to repay.

“Whatever issues have been put forth by the Punjab Chief Minister, the Government of India will look into them. I have a bond of blood with Punjab. As a prime minister, I have received an opportunity to pay back my debt, and I will not let such an opportunity slip by," he said.

Prime Minister Modi also shared his concern with regards to soil health.

"If the nation has to move ahead, we have to think about the farmers and villages as well as the children of the farmers. Just the way an overdose of medicine can prove to be harmful for a patient, we must also not use an excess of nitrogen and chemical fertilizers on the soil," he said.

During his speech, Prime Minister Modi also remembered Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia on his birth anniversary and said he used to give importance to cleanliness.

"By 2022, it should be our dream that there is no Indian left without a home. Every Indian must get a home. In 2019, when we mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, let us fulfil the dream of a Swachh Bharat," he added.

The Prime Minister visited Hussainiwala, the place where freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were unceremoniously cremated after their hanging in Lahore by the British colonial administration on March 23, 1931 on grounds of treason.

The National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala depicts an irrepressible revolutionary spirit of these three martyrs, who lit the eternal flame of liberty by smilingly embracing martyrdom for the motherland.

Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt threw a bomb inside the Central Assembly hall in New Delhi on April 8 1929 to record their protest against British rule in India. Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were also tried for shooting and killing British Superintendent of Police Saunders on December 17, 1928, and were awarded the death sentence.

Following a hasty trial of the Lahore Conspiracy Case, they were executed a day earlier than the scheduled hanging in the Central Jail at Lahore at 7.15 p.m. on March 23, 1931

The then-jail authorities broke the back wall of the jail and secretly brought the dead bodies of Bhaghat Singh and his comrades to Hussainiwala and cremated them unceremoniously.

B K Dutt died in New Delhi on July 19, 1965, and as per his last will, he was also cremated here.