The Chandigarh airport will be renamed after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, 25 September, during his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat'.
The PM said, "On 28 September, we will celebrate Bhagat Singh Jayanti. As a tribute to the great freedom fighter, it has been decided that the Chandigarh airport will now be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh."
PM Modi added, "A few days ago, we endeavoured to pay a tribute to Subash Chandra Bose by installing his statue on Kartavyapath. Renaming the Chandigarh airport after Bhagat Singh is another step in this direction."
The move is being seen as an attempt to outrun the Aam Aadmi Party's tributes to the freedom fighter. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, earlier this year, took his oath in Bhagat Singh's ancestral village Khatkar Kalan and requested people to wear 'basanti' yellow turbans. Soon after this, he declared 23 March, the day of Bhagat Singh's martyrdom, a public holiday that is to be observed every year.
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