Bhagat Singh whom the country knows as Shaheed-e-Azam completes one hundred and ten years of his life. He chose to be a martyr for the nation and martyrs never die, so Bhagat Singh lives. Bhagat Singh lives today in the hearts of thousands of his ardent lovers for whom the path of Bhagat Singh is their path. It is the path of creating a new world order without imperialism, capitalism and exploitation of any sort. His path was a path that led to an equitable society, a society free from religious fundamentalism and caste based discrimination.

Bhagat Singh craved for economic equality for his countrymen and said that just transfer of power would have no meaning. He believed in the need for revolution and called upon the youth of India to be prepared for it. In his letter to the students of this country he wrote : ” Youth have to carry the message of revolution to the remote corners of this country.They have to arouse people working in factories and industries, living in slums and shattered huts in villages and prepare them for revolution which will bring freedom for us. Then the exploitation of man by man will become impossible.”

But he knew that revolution was not an easy goal to achieve. It was not just a romantic dream which could be converted into reality by sheer individual adventurism. At such a young age he had read so much that he knew very well what the pre-requisites of revolution are. He wrote: ” Revolution is not an easy nut to crack. This is not possible with the power of just one man. Nor can there be a definite date of revolution. It emerges out of certain socio-economic conditions and a well organized revolutionary party has to take lead in this and prepare the masses for it. For a revolution all the forces have to be united and the revolutionary activists have to give many sacrifices. … In the words of Lenin we need professional revolutionaries who can give full time and have no other ambition in life but revolution. The more such activists unite in a party , more are the chances of success of revolution”. This reminds us of communist revolutionaries like Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro – the two heroes of Cuban revolution. They fought tooth and nail for the Cuban revolution and succeeded in overthrowing the American supported dictator Batista Government in Cuba and established the rule of the proletariat in Cuba.

In the present Indian context where the command of the corporate capitalist forces, both national and international , has captured the entire political system and hijacked the economy to fulfill their class interests, the words of Shaheed-e Azam Bhagat Singh are relevant today. The common people including youth who are largely unemployed or underemployed, peasants , contract employees, government employees, women and children are suffering . They do not form a priority of the national governments. All the policies that are being followed are pro-capitalist and anti-labour. Privatization of education, shrinking of investment in agriculture, weakening of public distribution system, communalization of politics and widespread corruption in public services have made the life of people difficult. There is again a need for revolution and the youth whom the leaders are never tired of calling demographic dividend, but are always beguiled, need to rise up for their future.