Tiptoe, I had sneaked out into the spacious courtyard of Delhi Legislative Assembly. The Old Secretariat constructed during the second decade of 20th century is the hub of sleepy and aesthetically displeasing offices of Delhi government. I was sitting on a wooden bench on the magically clean vestibule of Vidhan Sabha, smelling of disinfectant. Inside a case of disciplinary proceedings had come up against one of the suspended officers of our undertaking. A DANICS turned IAS was investigating the case. He was listening to the suspended employee as well to the Presenting Officer of our office. I sat outside conversing frugally with two peons.
In late 1998, I found that computers were still a luxury and buzzing electronic typewriters were the trendiest word processors in a charmed world of rattling Remingtons and Facits. I looked on to the clock on the wall to ensure that it was not turning backwards. Delhi government already had a web-site www.delhisarkar.com. But to my amazement the sole PC I could locate was an obsolete 386 on which an employee was playing videogame.
But it was a joy to sit at the feet of a gargantuan stone statue of Vithal Bhai Patel. Vithal Bhai Patel, elder brother of the Iron man of India, the plaque notified was the first speaker of this assembly. Then called the Central Legislative Assembly. Lesser known Vithal Bhai Patel had passed away in Switzerland in 1933 with only Subhas Chandra Bose on his side to nurse him. The one lakh rupee Will left by him towards subhas was later shamelessly challenged by Vallabh Bhai Patel and Gandhi to deprive the heir of the legacy.
In that courtyard I could spot other statues like those of Mahatma Gandhi and Chaudhry Brahma Prakash, the first chief minister of Delhi. I was a pleasant surprise to discover another bust of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. But to my unnerving dismay I found no trace of Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutt. On March 23, the martyrdom day Bhagat Singh-Rajguru-Sukhdev was our leaders would proffer lavish eulogy on their heroic deeds. Our history books are full of descriptions for that bomb plonking, slogan shouting and pamphlet distributing episode by Bhagat Singh and Batukeswar Dutt in Central Legislative Assembly.
A shrill sense of delight would coarse in vein to imagine that fiery incident of April 8, 1929. With Vithal Bhai Patel on the chair, and in presence of Pt Moti Lal Nehru and infamous John Simon of Simon Commission the Sikh and Bengali duo had denoted some innocuous crude bombs here "So that the deaf might hear". On April 8, 1929 their symbolic protest was marked by distribution of pamphlets, highlighting their egalitarian communist manifesto amidst uproarious shouting Inquilab Zindabad (Long Live the Revolution) and "Down with the British Empire".
The arrest of Bhagat Singh, who was absconding after lethal revenge of Lala Lajpat Rai's death on Saunders in Lahore led him ultimately to the gallows on March 23, 1931. Batukeswar sentenced to life imprisonment disappeared from history. He later lived in Lucknow and died a pitiable death in New Delhi three decades afterwards. He had an unprofitable agency of cigarette and wanted a permit for a city bus that was not approved.
I left Delhi government shortly
afterwards but it is a matter of shame that no memorial for Bhagat Singh
and Batukeswar Dutt has been erected till date. I apologize for not being
able to do anything more than my e- mails to Sahib Singh Verma and Sheila
Dixit which were not even acknowledged.