The Congress drew flak from the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for referring to Bhagat Singh as a ‘Jat Sikh’ in an in-house advertisement on the latest issue of its mouth-piece ‘Congress Sandesh’.

The ruling party did the same with Shivaram Hari Rajguru, who had also been executed with Singh in Lahore Central Jail on March 23, 1931. The ad on the back-page of Congress Sandesh referred to Rajguru as ‘Deshastha Brahmin’ community of Maharashtra.

The ad was placed on the occasion of 81st Martyrdom Day commemorating the execution of Singh and Rajguru along with Sukhdev Thapar for the killing of British police officer J P Saunders in Lahore in 1928. It described Singh as a ‘freedom fighter’, who was “born to a Jat Sikh family in Lyallpur, Punjab”. It referred to Rajguru as an “Indian revolutionary from Maharashtra”, who “belonged to Deshastha Brahmin community”.

The BJP slammed the Congress for allegedly ‘insulting’ the martyrs by introducing them by their caste and religious affiliations. “This is an insult to the nation’s heroes and it is not the first time that the Congress and its government have insulted the national heroes,” said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The Congress, however, sought to downplay the issue saying it respects all freedom fighters.