FEATURE

Bhagat Singh's Letter to the Second LCC Convicts

[ On March 22, the Second Lahore Conspiracy Case convicts, who were locked up in Ward Number 14 (near condemned cells), sent a slip to Bhagat Singh asking if he would like to live. This letter was in reply to that slip. ]

March 22, 1931

Comrades,

Chandrashekhar, Bhagat Singh,

We Shall Fight, We Shall Win!

‘Yes, I have ambitions. My ambitions are to live like Bhagat Singh and die like Che Guevara!'

– Chandrashekhar Prasad in answer to a question during the Presidential Debate in JNUSU polls

On 31 March 1997 , Chandrashekhar, who had served two terms as JNUSU President, was shot dead at JP Chowk at Siwan, Bihar , while addressing a street-corner meeting. Chandu, who had returned to his hometown Siwan as a wholetimer of the CPI(ML), had been assassinated at the behest of the mafia don and RJD MP, Shahabuddin.

March 2007, along with marking Bhagat Singh's birth centenary, will also mark ten years since Chandu's martyrdom.

Chandu, in life, you led a robust student movement against privatisation and communalism; in death, you sparked off one of memorable youth upsurges of our time, in which hundreds of students faced police brutality on the streets of Delhi and other cities and towns all over India .

Your life and death will always inspire young people to find ways to prove that Bhagat Singh lives on in today's youth!

The desire to live is natural. It is in me also. I do not want to conceal it. But it is conditional. I don't want to live as a prisoner or under restrictions. My name has become a symbol of Indian revolution. The ideal and the sacrifices of the revolutionary party have elevated me to a height beyond which I will never be able to rise if I live.

Today people do not know my weaknesses. If I escape gallows those weaknesses will come before them and the symbol of revolution will get tarnished or perhaps it may vanish altogether. On the other hand, if I mount the gallows boldly and with a smile, that will inspire Indian mothers and they will aspire that their children should also become Bhagat Singh. Thus the number of persons ready to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of our country will increase enormously. It will then become impossible for imperialism to face the tide of the revolution, and all their might and their satanic efforts will not be able to stop its onward march.

Yes, one thing pricks me even today. My heart nurtured some ambitions for doing something for humanity and for my country. I have not been able to fulfil even one-thousandth part of those ambitions. If I live I might perhaps get a chance to fulfil them. If ever it came to my mind that I should not die, it came from this end only.

I am proud of myself these days and I am anxiously waiting for the final test. I wish the day may come nearer soon.

Your comrade,

Bhagat Singh