CM Vishnu Deo Sai pays tribute to Ashfaqulla Khan on birth anniversary
Synopsis
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai paid tribute to revolutionary martyr Ashfaqulla Khan on his birth anniversary, honouring the Kakori Train Action hero and calling his sacrifice a timeless inspiration for India.
Key Takeaways
Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai posted a tribute to Ashfaqulla Khan on 22 October 2026 , Khan's birth anniversary.
Khan was a member of the Hindustan Republican Association and a key figure in the Kakori Train Action of 9 August 1925 .
He was hanged by British authorities on 19 December 1927 , becoming a celebrated martyr of India's independence movement.
CM Sai called Khan a 'great revolutionary' whose 'sacrifice for the motherland will forever inspire the countrymen.' The tribute is part of an annual commemorative calendar observed by Indian elected representatives across parties.
A revolutionary who chose the gallows over surrender — Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Thursday, 22 October 2026, paid homage to Ashfaqulla Khan, the celebrated freedom fighter executed by British authorities for his role in the historic Kakori Train Action of 1925.
Posting on X in Hindi, CM Sai described Khan as a 'mahaan krantikari' ('great revolutionary') and 'hero of the Kakori Train Action', writing that 'his sacrifice for the motherland will forever inspire the countrymen.'
The Kakori Train Action and Ashfaqulla Khan's legacy
Ashfaqulla Khan was a founding member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), the clandestine revolutionary body that planned and executed the Kakori Train Action on 9 August 1925. The operation saw a small band of revolutionaries stop a train near Kakori, Uttar Pradesh, and seize British government treasury funds — a dramatic act of defiance meant to finance the independence movement. British authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown. Khan was arrested, tried, and hanged on 19 December 1927, becoming one of the youngest martyrs of India's freedom struggle.
His partnership with fellow revolutionary Ram Prasad Bismil — a Hindu and a Muslim bound by a shared dream of a free India — is remembered as a powerful symbol of composite nationalism, cutting across the communal divides that colonial administrators sought to exploit.
An annual commemoration on India's revolutionary calendar
Across the political spectrum, Indian elected representatives mark the birth and death anniversaries of independence-era figures as part of an established national commemorative calendar. BJP leaders in particular have consistently included revolutionary nationalists — not just mainstream political figures — in these annual tributes, underlining the party's efforts to claim a broad arc of the freedom struggle's heritage.
CM Sai, who took office in December 2023 following the BJP's return to power in Chhattisgarh, has continued this tradition with regularity. Today's tribute to Ashfaqulla Khan sits squarely within that pattern — a reaffirmation that the courage of 1925 still carries weight in 2026.
Nearly a century after the gallows, the man who refused to flee still inspires the ones who govern.
Point of View
A politically deliberate framing in a polarised climate. For CM Sai, such tributes also reinforce the party's broader project of centering revolutionary nationalists, rather than only Gandhian figures, in the official memory of independence. The cross-communal symbolism of the Khan–Bismil partnership gives the message added resonance. It is a soft but consistent signal about how the ruling party wants to narrate the nation's past.
NationPress
22 Oct 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Ashfaqulla Khan?
Ashfaqulla Khan was an Indian revolutionary and member of the Hindustan Republican Association who participated in the Kakori Train Action of 1925. He was convicted by British authorities and hanged on 19 December 1927, becoming one of the celebrated martyrs of India's freedom struggle.
What was the Kakori Train Action?
The Kakori Train Action took place on 9 August 1925, when members of the Hindustan Republican Association stopped a British government train near Kakori in present-day Uttar Pradesh and seized treasury funds to finance the independence movement.
Why is Vishnu Deo Sai paying tribute to Ashfaqulla Khan?
22 October is Ashfaqulla Khan's birth anniversary. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai posted a tribute on X honouring Khan as a 'great revolutionary' whose sacrifice continues to inspire Indians.
When did Vishnu Deo Sai become Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh?
Vishnu Deo Sai became Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh in December 2023, following the BJP's victory in the state assembly elections.
What is the connection between Ashfaqulla Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil?
Ashfaqulla Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil were close friends and fellow revolutionaries who planned the Kakori Train Action together. Their bond — a Muslim and a Hindu united in the cause of independence — is widely remembered as a symbol of India's composite nationalist tradition.
