West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday remembered freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai on his 152nd birth anniversary.

Advertisement

Lajpat Rai was born on January 28, 1865 in Dhudike, in Punjab’s Moga district. He died of a heart attack on November 17, 1928.

Rai was also known Punjab Kesari.

Also read: PM Modi pays tribute to Lala Lajpat Rai on his birth anniversary

In 1928, the British government set up the Simon Commission, headed by Sir John Simon, to report on the political situation in India.

The Indian political parties boycotted the Commission, because it did not include a single Indian in its membership, and it met with country-wide protests. When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lajpat Rai led silent march in protest against it. The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi (baton) charge the protesters and personally assaulted Rai.

Rai did not fully recover from his injuries and died on 17 November 1928 of a heart attack. Doctors thought that Scott’s blows had hastened his death.

However, when the matter was raised in the British Parliament, the British Government denied any role in Rai’s death.

Although Bhagat Singh did not witness the event, he vowed to take revenge, and joined other revolutionaries, Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar and Chandrashekhar Azad, in a plot to kill Scott.

However, in a case of mistaken identity, Bhagat Singh was signalled to shoot on the appearance of John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police. He was shot by Rajguru and Bhagat Singh while leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17 December 1928. Chanan Singh, a head constable who was chasing them, was fatally injured by Azad’s covering fire.