Lalan Singh pays tribute to Bhagat Singh on birth anniversary
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
On the birth anniversary of Sardar Bhagat Singh, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh (Lalan Singh) joined millions of Indians on Monday, 28 September 2026, in honouring the revolutionary martyr who chose the gallows over colonial submission at just 23 years of age.
Posting in Hindi on X, the senior Janata Dal (United) leader wrote: 'महान क्रांतिकारी एवं अमर शहीद सरदार भगत सिंह जी की जयंती पर उन्हें कोटि-कोटि नमन' — ('A million salutes to the great revolutionary and immortal martyr Sardar Bhagat Singh on his birth anniversary'). He added that Bhagat Singh's 'indomitable courage, sacrifice and patriotism for the freedom of the motherland will always inspire the people of this country.'
The martyr whose shadow never left Indian politics
Sardar Bhagat Singh was born on 28 September 1907 in the Lyallpur district of undivided Punjab. Hanged by British authorities on 23 March 1931, he became, in death, something his colonial prosecutors never intended — an enduring symbol of fearless resistance and youthful sacrifice that transcends party and ideology.
His image occupies a unique space in Indian public life: claimed simultaneously by the left for his socialist leanings, by nationalists for his anti-colonial fire, and by every shade of political opinion in between. That universality is precisely why his birth anniversary triggers an annual, cross-party wave of tributes from Parliament to village panchayat.
A ritual of remembrance, year after year
Indian leaders across the political spectrum — from the ruling dispensation to the principal opposition — mark 28 September with statements, wreath-laying ceremonies, and school programmes. The ritual is less about electoral calculation and more about the enduring weight the freedom struggle carries in the country's self-image. For a minister who heads the Panchayati Raj portfolio — the layer of governance closest to India's villages — invoking Bhagat Singh's village-rooted patriotism carries a particular resonance.
Ninety-five years after his execution, the revolutionary from Punjab still anchors the nation's conversation about what it means to love a country enough to die for it. That is not a small inheritance.