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Punjab Legislative Assembly

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75-621: Official Opposition (16) Other Opposition (7) The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab in India . The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 members , directly elected from 117 single-seat constituencies . The tenure of the Legislative Assembly

150-665: A Head Constable who was chasing them, was shot dead by Chandrashekhar Azad. They then fled on bicycles to pre-arranged safe houses. The police launched a massive search operation to catch them, blocking all entrances and exits to and from the city; the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) kept a watch on all young men leaving Lahore. The fugitives hid for the next two days. On 19 December 1928, Sukhdev called on Durgawati Devi , sometimes known as Durga Bhabhi, wife of another HSRA member, Bhagwati Charan Vohra , for help, which she agreed to provide. They decided to catch

225-634: A 63-day hunger strike. Almost all the nationalist leaders in the country paid tribute to Das' death. Mohammad Alam and Gopi Chand Bhargava resigned from the Punjab Legislative Council in protest, and Nehru moved a successful adjournment motion in the Central Assembly as a censure against the "inhumane treatment" of the Lahore prisoners. Singh finally heeded a resolution of the Congress party, and

300-863: A French anarchist who had bombed the Chamber of Deputies in Paris, Singh's plan was to explode a bomb inside the Central Legislative Assembly . The nominal intention was to protest against the Public Safety Bill, and the Trade Dispute Act, which had been rejected by the Assembly but were being enacted by the Viceroy using his special powers; the actual intention was for the perpetrators to allow themselves to be arrested so that they could use court appearances as

375-431: A cannon and blow me off." These heroes had conquered the fear of death. Let us bow to them a thousand times for their heroism. But we should not imitate their act. In our land of millions of destitute and crippled people, if we take to the practice of seeking justice through murder, there will be a terrifying situation. Our poor people will become victims of our atrocities. By making a dharma of violence, we shall be reaping

450-697: A case of mistaken identity, the plotters shot John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, as he was leaving the District Police Headquarters in Lahore on 17 December 1928. Contemporary reaction to the killing differs substantially from the adulation that later surfaced. The Naujawan Bharat Sabha, which had organised the Lahore protest march along with the HSRA, found that attendance at its subsequent public meetings dropped sharply. Politicians, activists, and newspapers, including The People , which Rai had founded in 1925, stressed that non-cooperation

525-469: A conspiracy to murder Scott, and waging a war against the King. Singh, still on hunger strike, had to be carried to the court handcuffed on a stretcher; he had lost 14 pounds (6.4 kg) from his original weight of 133 pounds (60 kg) since beginning the strike. The government was beginning to make concessions but refused to move on the core issue of recognising the classification of "political prisoner". In

600-546: A few days later. For some time, Bhagat Singh had been exploiting the power of drama as a means to inspire the revolt against the British, purchasing a magic lantern to show slides that enlivened his talks about revolutionaries such as Ram Prasad Bismil who had died as a result of the Kakori conspiracy . In 1929, he proposed a dramatic act to the HSRA intended to gain massive publicity for their aims. Influenced by Auguste Vaillant ,

675-521: A hole in the rear wall of the jail, removed the bodies, and secretly cremated the three men under cover of darkness outside Ganda Singh Wala village, and then threw the ashes into the Sutlej river, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Ferozepore . Singh's trial has been described by the Supreme Court as "contrary to the fundamental doctrine of criminal jurisprudence" because there was no opportunity for

750-556: A hunger strike. They demanded equality in food standards, clothing, toiletries, and other hygienic necessities, as well as access to books and a daily newspaper. They argued that they should not be forced to do manual labour or any undignified work in the jail. The hunger strike inspired a rise in public support for Singh and his colleagues from around June 1929. The Tribune newspaper was particularly prominent in this movement and reported on mass meetings in places such as Lahore and Amritsar . The government had to apply Section 144 of

825-459: A life sentence. In 1929, the HSRA had set up bomb factories in Lahore and Saharanpur . On 15 April 1929, the Lahore bomb factory was discovered by the police, leading to the arrest of other members of HSRA, including Sukhdev, Kishori Lal , and Jai Gopal. Not long after this, the Saharanpur factory was also raided and some of the conspirators became informants . With the new information available,

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900-583: A martyr and folk hero in Northern India. Borrowing ideas from Bolshevism and anarchism , the charismatic Singh electrified a growing militancy in India in the 1930s, and prompted urgent introspection within the Indian National Congress 's nonviolent but eventually successful campaign for India's independence . In December 1928, Bhagat Singh and an associate, Shivaram Rajguru , both members of

975-854: A popular Indian nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai for having ordered a lathi (baton) charge in which Rai was injured and two weeks thereafter died of a heart attack. As Saunders exited a police station on a motorcycle, he was felled by a single bullet fired from across the street by Rajguru, a marksman. As he lay injured, he was shot at close range several times by Singh, the postmortem report showing eight bullet wounds. Another associate of Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad , shot dead an Indian police head constable, Channan Singh, who attempted to give chase as Singh and Rajguru fled. After having escaped, Bhagat Singh and his associates used pseudonyms to publicly announce avenging Lajpat Rai's death, putting up prepared posters that they had altered to show John Saunders as their intended target instead of James Scott. Singh

1050-456: A popular folk hero after his death. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about him: "Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol; the act was forgotten, the symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in

1125-434: A request by his father, ending his hunger strike on 5 October 1929 after 116 days. During this period, Singh's popularity among common Indians extended beyond Punjab. Singh's attention now turned to his trial, where he was to face a Crown prosecution team comprising C. H. Carden-Noad, Kalandar Ali Khan, Jai Gopal Lal, and the prosecuting inspector, Bakshi Dina Nath. The defence was composed of eight lawyers. Prem Dutt Verma,

1200-561: A single state, Patiala and East Punjab States Union . The Punjab State Legislature was a bicameral house in April 1952, comprising the Vidhan Sabha (lower house) and Vidhan Parishad (upper house). In 1956 that state was largely merged into Punjab, the strength of the Vidhan Parishad of the new State of Punjab was enhanced from 40 seats to 46 seats and in 1957, it was increased to 51. Punjab

1275-543: A small revolutionary group, the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (also Army, or HSRA), shot dead a 21-year-old British police officer, John Saunders, in Lahore , Punjab , in what is today Pakistan , mistaking Saunders, who was still on probation, for the British senior police superintendent , James Scott , whom they had intended to assassinate. They held Scott responsible for the death of

1350-466: A stage to publicise their cause. The HSRA leadership was initially opposed to Bhagat's participation in the bombing because they were certain that his prior involvement in the Saunders shooting meant that his arrest would ultimately result in his execution. However, they eventually decided that he was their most suitable candidate. On 8 April 1929, Singh, accompanied by Batukeshwar Dutt, threw two bombs into

1425-405: A tribunal, only under conditions of a breakdown of law-and-order, which, it was claimed in this case, had not occurred. However, the petition was dismissed as being premature. Carden-Noad presented the government's charges of conducting robberies, and the illegal acquisition of arms and ammunition among others. The evidence of G. T. H. Hamilton Harding, the Lahore superintendent of police, shocked

1500-405: A vain. Bhagat Singh did not wish to live. He refused to apologise, or even file an appeal. Bhagat Singh was not a devotee of non-violence, but he did not subscribe to the religion of violence. He took to violence due to helplessness and to defend his homeland. In his last letter, Bhagat Singh wrote, " I have been arrested while waging a war. For me there can be no gallows. Put me into the mouth of

1575-633: Is five years unless dissolved sooner. The Speaker of the sixteenth assembly is Kultar Singh Sandhwan . The meeting place of the Legislative Assembly since 6 March 1961 is the Vidhan Bhavan in Chandigarh. In the British Raj , an Executive Council was formed under The Indian Councils Act, 1861 . It was only under the Government of India Act 1919 that a Legislative Council was set up in Punjab. Later, under

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1650-724: Is sometimes referred to as the Shaheed-e-Azam ("Great martyr" in Urdu and Punjabi ). Bhagat Singh was born into a Punjabi Jat Sikh family on 27 September 1907 in the village of Banga in the Lyallpur district of the Punjab in what was then British India and is today Pakistan; he was the second of seven children—four sons, and three daughters—born to Vidyavati and her husband Kishan Singh Sandhu. Bhagat Singh's father and his uncle Ajit Singh were active in progressive politics, taking part in

1725-531: The Government of India Act 1935 , the Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted with a membership of 175. It was summoned for the first time on 1 April 1937. In 1947, Punjab Province was partitioned into West Punjab and East Punjab and the 79-member East Punjab Legislative Assembly was formed, the forerunner of the current assembly. After the independence of India , on 15 July 1948, eight princely states of East Punjab grouped together to form

1800-674: The Parliament of India : This is the list of current opposition parties in the Legislative Assemblies of the Indian states and union territories :. (no opposition with at least 10% seats) This is the list of current opposition parties in the Legislative Councils of the Indian states : Bhagat Singh Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907  – 23 March 1931) was an Indian anti-colonial revolutionary, who participated in

1875-779: The agitation around the Canal Colonization Bill in 1907, and later the Ghadar Movement of 1914–1915. After being sent to the village school in Banga for a few years, Bhagat Singh was enrolled in the Dayanand Anglo-Vedic School in Lahore. In 1923, he joined the National College in Lahore, founded two years earlier by Lala Lajpat Rai in response to Mahatma Gandhi 's non-cooperation movement , which urged Indian students to shun schools and colleges subsidized by

1950-479: The 18 accused and allowed their petitions to be taken up for hearing the next day. The trial ended on 30 September 1930. The three accused, whose charges were withdrawn, included Dutt who had already been given a life sentence in the Assembly bomb case. The ordinance (and the tribunal) would lapse on 31 October 1930 as it had not been passed by the Central Assembly or the British Parliament. On 7 October 1930,

2025-444: The Assembly chamber from its public gallery while it was in session. The bombs had been designed not to kill, but some members, including George Ernest Schuster , the finance member of the Viceroy's Executive Council , were injured. The smoke from the bombs filled the Assembly so that Singh and Dutt could probably have escaped in the confusion had they wished. Instead, they stayed shouting the slogan " Inquilab Zindabad !" ("Long Live

2100-643: The British Indian government. Police became concerned with Singh's influence on the youth and arrested him in May 1927 on the pretext that he had been involved in a bombing that had taken place in Lahore in October 1926. He was released on a surety of Rs. 60,000 five weeks after his arrest. He wrote for, and edited, Urdu and Punjabi newspapers, published in Amritsar and also contributed to low-priced pamphlets published by

2175-470: The British Parliament, and it eventually lapsed without any legal or constitutional sanctity. The executions were reported widely by the press, especially as they took place on the eve of the annual convention of the Congress party at Karachi . Gandhi faced black flag demonstrations by angry youths who shouted "Down with Gandhi". The New York Times reported: A reign of terror in the city of Cawnpore in

2250-486: The Commission because there were no Indians in its membership, and there were protests across the country. When the Commission visited Lahore on 30 October 1928, Lala Lajpat Rai led a march in protest against it. Police attempts to disperse the large crowd resulted in violence. The superintendent of police, James A. Scott, ordered the police to lathi charge (use batons against) the protesters and personally assaulted Rai, who

2325-668: The HSRA in Britain. The appellants claimed that the ordinance which created the tribunal was invalid while the government countered that the Viceroy was completely empowered to create such a tribunal. The appeal was dismissed by Judge Viscount Dunedin . After the rejection of the appeal to the Privy Council, Congress party president Madan Mohan Malaviya filed a mercy appeal before Irwin on 14 February 1931. Some prisoners sent Mahatma Gandhi an appeal to intervene. In his notes dated 19 March 1931,

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2400-733: The Naujawan Bharat Sabha that excoriated the British. He also wrote for Kirti , the journal of the Kirti Kisan Party ("Workers and Peasants Party") and briefly for the Veer Arjun newspaper, published in Delhi . He often used pseudonyms, including names such as Balwant, Ranjit and Vidhrohi. In 1928, the British government set up the Simon Commission to report on the political situation in India. Some Indian political parties boycotted

2475-545: The Revolution") and threw leaflets. The two men were arrested and subsequently moved through a series of jails in Delhi. According to Neeti Nair, "public criticism of this terrorist action was unequivocal." Gandhi, once again, issued strong words of disapproval of their deed. Nonetheless, the jailed Bhagat was reported to be elated, and referred to the subsequent legal proceedings as a "drama". Singh and Dutt eventually responded to

2550-666: The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly, 92 members of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party form the treasury benches. The main opposition party in the assembly is Indian National Congress with 18 seats. The other parties which are in opposition are the Shiromani Akali Dal , the Bharatiya Janata Party , the Bahujan Samaj Party and independents . AAP MLA, Kultar Singh Sandhwan was announced as

2625-600: The United Provinces and an attack on Mahatma Gandhi by a youth outside Karachi were among the answers of the Indian extremists today to the hanging of Bhagat Singh and two fellow-assassins. Hartals and strikes of mourning were called. The Congress party, during the Karachi session, declared: While dissociating itself from and disapproving of political violence in any shape or form, this Congress places on record its admiration of

2700-466: The Viceroy recorded: While returning Gandhiji asked me if he could talk about the case of Bhagat Singh because newspapers had come out with the news of his slated hanging on March 24th. It would be a very unfortunate day because on that day the new president of the Congress had to reach Karachi and there would be a lot of hot discussion. I explained to him that I had given a very careful thought to it but I did not find any basis to convince myself to commute

2775-468: The accused to defend themselves. The Special Tribunal was a departure from the normal procedure adopted for a trial and its decision could only be appealed to the Privy Council located in Britain. The accused were absent from the court and the judgement was passed ex-parte . The ordinance, which was introduced by the Viceroy to form the Special Tribunal, was never approved by the Central Assembly or

2850-489: The activities of the hunger strikers had gained popularity and attention nationwide, the government decided to advance the start of the Saunders murder trial, which was henceforth called the Lahore Conspiracy Case. Singh was transported to Borstal Jail, Lahore, and the trial began there on 10 July 1929. In addition to charging them with the murder of Saunders, Singh and the 27 other prisoners were charged with plotting

2925-428: The bravery and sacrifice of Bhagat Singh, Sukh Dev and Raj Guru and mourns with their bereaved families the loss of these lives. The Congress is of the opinion that their triple execution was an act of wanton vengeance and a deliberate flouting of the unanimous demand of the nation for commutation. This Congress is further of the opinion that the [British] Government lost a golden opportunity for promoting good-will between

3000-427: The court. He stated that he had filed the first information report against the accused under specific orders from the chief secretary to the governor of Punjab and that he was unaware of the details of the case. The prosecution depended mainly on the evidence of P. N. Ghosh, Hans Raj Vohra, and Jai Gopal who had been Singh's associates in the HSRA. On 10 July 1930, the tribunal decided to press charges against only 15 of

3075-527: The criminal code in an attempt to limit gatherings. Jawaharlal Nehru met Singh and the other strikers in Central Jail Mianwali . After the meeting, he stated: I was very much pained to see the distress of the heroes. They have staked their lives in this struggle. They want that political prisoners should be treated as political prisoners. I am quite hopeful that their sacrifice would be crowned with success. Muhammad Ali Jinnah spoke in support of

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3150-576: The criticism by writing the Assembly Bomb Statement: We hold human life sacred beyond words. We are neither perpetrators of dastardly outrages ... nor are we 'lunatics' as the Tribune of Lahore and some others would have it believed ... Force when aggressively applied is 'violence' and is, therefore, morally unjustifiable, but when it is used in the furtherance of a legitimate cause, it has its moral justification. The trial began in

3225-411: The deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of a meeting in the house is the responsibility of the speaker. The main function of the assembly is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable. The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. In

3300-431: The eyes of officials, if someone broke the law then that was a personal act, not a political one, and they were common criminals. By now, the condition of another hunger striker, Jatindra Nath Das , lodged in the same jail, had deteriorated considerably. The Jail committee recommended his unconditional release, but the government rejected the suggestion and offered to release him on bail. On 13 September 1929, Das died after

3375-449: The first week of June, following a preliminary hearing in May. On 12 June, both men were sentenced to life imprisonment for: "causing explosions of a nature likely to endanger life, unlawfully and maliciously." Dutt had been defended by Asaf Ali , while Singh defended himself. Doubts have been raised about the accuracy of testimony offered at the trial. One key discrepancy concerns the automatic pistol that Singh had been carrying when he

3450-428: The hearts of the repressed people. A plan to rescue Singh and fellow HSRA inmates from the jail failed. HSRA member Durga Devi's husband, Bhagwati Charan Vohra, attempted to manufacture bombs for the purpose, but died when they exploded accidentally. Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were sentenced to death in the Lahore conspiracy case and ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931. The schedule was moved forward by 11 hours and

3525-501: The legislators will get answers on all issues that they raise during the Assembly debates. The answers would be provided during the Zero Hour. This was done for the first time in the history of Punjab Assembly. List of committees and chairpersons for the term 2022-2023. Seat Share Party Leader (Defected from SAD to AAP) Official Opposition (India) In India, Official Opposition designates largest party not supporting

3600-545: The mistaken murder of a junior British police officer in December 1928 in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationalist . He later took part in a largely symbolic bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi and a hunger strike in jail, which—on the back of sympathetic coverage in Indian-owned newspapers—turned him into a household name in the Punjab region , and after his execution at age 23 into

3675-603: The only appeal after the tribunal was to the Privy Council located in England. On 2 July 1930, a habeas corpus petition was filed in the High Court challenging the ordinance on the grounds that it was ultra vires and, therefore, illegal; the Viceroy had no powers to shorten the customary process of determining justice. The petition argued that the Defence of India Act 1915 allowed the Viceroy to introduce an ordinance, and set up such

3750-477: The people of the country. The role of the opposition in legislature is basically to check the excesses of the ruling or dominant party, and not to be totally antagonistic. There are actions of the ruling party which may be beneficial to the masses and opposition is expected to support such steps. In legislature the Opposition Party has a major role, which is: This is the list of current opposition parties in

3825-473: The police were able to connect the three strands of the Saunders murder, Assembly bombing, and bomb manufacture. Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, and 21 others were charged with the Saunders murder. Singh was re-arrested for murdering Saunders and Chanan Singh based on substantial evidence against him, including statements by his associates, Hans Raj Vohra and Jai Gopal. His life sentence in the Assembly Bomb case

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3900-399: The power to summon the assembly or to close the same. All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the eligible voters who are above 18 years of age. The current assembly consists of 117 elected members. The elected members select one of its own members as its chairperson who is called the speaker of the assembly. The speaker is assisted by

3975-545: The prison cells to test the prisoners' resolve. Water pitchers were filled with milk so that either the prisoners remained thirsty or broke their strike; nobody faltered and the impasse continued. The authorities then attempted force-feeding the prisoners but this was resisted. With the matter still unresolved, the Indian Viceroy , Lord Irwin , cut short his vacation in Simla to discuss the situation with jail authorities. Since

4050-496: The rest of northern India, resounded with his name." In still later years, Singh, an atheist and socialist in adulthood, won admirers in India from among a political spectrum that included both communists and right-wing Hindu nationalists . Although many of Singh's associates, as well as many Indian anti-colonial revolutionaries, were also involved in daring acts and were either executed or died violent deaths, few came to be lionised in popular art and literature as did Singh, who

4125-602: The resulting publicity, brought to light Singh's complicity in the John Saunders case. Awaiting trial, Singh gained public sympathy after he joined fellow defendant Jatin Das in a hunger strike , demanding better prison conditions for Indian prisoners, the strike ending in Das's death from starvation in September 1929. Bhagat Singh was convicted of the murder of John Saunders and Channan Singh, and hanged in March 1931, aged 23. He became

4200-515: The rules of their respective houses. The Opposition's main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public. This also helps to fix the mistakes of the Ruling Party. The Opposition is equally responsible in upholding the best interests of the people of the country. They have to ensure that the Government does not take any steps, which might have negative effects on

4275-447: The ruling cabinet in the Parliament of India or a State or Territory Legislative Assembly . To get formal recognition in either upper or lower houses , the concerned party must have at least 10% of the total strength of the house . A single party has to meet the 10% seat criterion, not an alliance. Many of the Indian state legislatures also follow this 10% rule while the rest of them prefer single largest opposition party according to

4350-402: The same, and the remaining seven Kishori Lal , Mahavir Singh , Bijoy Kumar Sinha , Shiv Verma , Gaya Prasad , Jaidev Kapoor and Kamal Nath Tewari were all sentenced to transportation for life. In Punjab province , a defence committee drew up a plan to appeal to the Privy Council. Singh was initially against the appeal but later agreed to it in the hope that the appeal would popularise

4425-402: The sentence. It appeared he found my reasoning weighty. The Communist Party of Great Britain expressed its reaction to the case: The history of this case, of which we do not come across any example in relation to the political cases, reflects the symptoms of callousness and cruelty which is the outcome of bloated desire of the imperialist government of Britain so that fear can be instilled in

4500-590: The speaker of the assembly. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann took the oath of office on 16 March at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh . Inderbir Singh Nijjar took the oath as Protem Speaker. On 17 March Nijjar administered the oath of office to all the 117 legislators of the Sixteenth Punjab Legislative assembly. Other 10 cabinet ministers of the Mann ministry , took oath on 19 March. On 22 June 2022, Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan announced that

4575-475: The station, Singh managed to conceal his identity while buying tickets, and the three boarded the train heading to Cawnpore (now Kanpur ). There they boarded a train for Lucknow since the CID at Howrah railway station usually scrutinised passengers on the direct train from Lahore. At Lucknow, Rajguru left separately for Benares while Singh, Devi and the infant went to Howrah , with all except Singh returning to Lahore

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4650-409: The strikers in the Assembly, saying: The man who goes on hunger strike has a soul. He is moved by that soul, and he believes in the justice of his cause ... however much you deplore them and, however, much you say they are misguided, it is the system, this damnable system of governance, which is resented by the people. The government tried to break the strike by placing different food items in

4725-407: The symbol remained, and within a few months each town and village of the Punjab, and to a lesser extent in the rest of northern India, resounded with his name. Innumerable songs grew about him and the popularity that the man achieved was something amazing. After killing Saunders, the group escaped through the D.A.V. College entrance, across the road from the District Police Headquarters. Chanan Singh,

4800-403: The three were hanged on 23 March 1931 at 7:30 pm in the Lahore jail. It is reported that no magistrate at the time was willing to supervise Singh's hanging as was required by law. The execution was supervised instead by an honorary judge named Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan Kasuri , who also signed the three death warrants, as their original warrants had expired. The jail authorities then broke

4875-490: The train departing from Lahore to Bathinda en route to Howrah ( Calcutta ) early the next morning. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru, both carrying loaded revolvers, left the house early the next day. Dressed in Western attire (Bhagat Singh cut his hair, shaved his beard and wore a hat over cropped hair), and carrying Devi's sleeping child, Singh and Devi passed as a young couple, while Rajguru carried their luggage as their servant. At

4950-420: The trial to proceed without the accused or members of the HSRA. This was a setback for Singh as he could no longer use the trial as a forum to publicise his views. To speed up the slow trial, the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, declared an emergency on 1 May 1930 and introduced an ordinance to set up a special tribunal composed of three high court judges for the case. This decision cut short the normal process of justice as

5025-409: The tribunal delivered its 300-page judgement based on all the evidence and concluded that the participation of Singh, Sukhdev , and Shivaram Rajguru in Saunder's murder was proven. They were sentenced to death by hanging. Of the other accused, three were acquitted ( Ajoy Ghosh , Jatindra Nath Sanyal and Des Raj) Kundan Lal received seven years' rigorous imprisonment , Prem Dutt received five years of

5100-411: The two nations, admittedly held to be crucial at this juncture, and for winning over to methods of peace a party which, driven to despair, resorts to political violence. In the issue of Young India of 29 March 1931, Gandhi wrote: Bhagat Singh and his two associates have been hanged. The Congress made many attempts to save their lives and the Government entertained many hopes of it, but all has been in

5175-440: The youngest amongst the 27 accused, threw his slipper at Gopal when he turned and became a prosecution witness in court. As a result, the magistrate ordered that all the accused should be handcuffed. Singh and others refused to be handcuffed and were subjected to brutal beating. The revolutionaries refused to attend the court and Singh wrote a letter to the magistrate citing various reasons for their refusal. The magistrate ordered

5250-407: Was arrested. Some witnesses said that he had fired two or three shots while the police sergeant who arrested him testified that the gun was pointed downward when he took it from him and that Singh "was playing with it." According to an article in the India Law Journal , the prosecution witnesses were coached, their accounts were incorrect, and Singh had turned over the pistol himself. Singh was given

5325-461: Was deferred until the Saunders case was decided. He was sent to Central Jail Mianwali from the Delhi jail. There he witnessed discrimination between European and Indian prisoners. He considered himself, along with others, to be a political prisoner . He noted that he had received an enhanced diet at Delhi which was not being provided at Mianwali. He led other Indian, self-identified political prisoners he felt were being treated as common criminals in

5400-899: Was injured. Rai died of a heart attack on 17 November 1928. Doctors thought that his death might have been hastened by the injuries he had received. When the matter was raised in the Parliament of the United Kingdom , the British Government denied any role in Rai's death. Singh was a prominent member of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) and was probably responsible, in large part, for its change of name to Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928. The HSRA vowed to avenge Rai's death. Singh conspired with revolutionaries like Shivaram Rajguru , Sukhdev Thapar , and Chandrashekhar Azad to kill Scott. However, in

5475-413: Was preferable to violence. The murder was condemned as a retrograde action by Mahatma Gandhi , the Congress leader, but Jawaharlal Nehru later expressed his opinion in these words: Bhagat Singh did not become popular because of his act of terrorism but because he seemed to vindicate, for the moment, the honour of Lala Lajpat Rai, and through him of the nation. He became a symbol, the act was forgotten,

5550-427: Was thereafter on the run for many months, and no convictions resulted at the time. Surfacing again in April 1929, he and another associate, Batukeshwar Dutt , set off two low-intensity homemade bombs among some unoccupied benches of the Central Legislative Assembly in Delhi . They showered leaflets from the gallery on the legislators below, shouted slogans, and allowed the authorities to arrest them. The arrest, and

5625-547: Was trifurcated in 1966 to form Haryana , Himachal Pradesh , and Punjab. The Vidhan Parishad was reduced to 40 seats and the Vidhan Sabha grew by 50 seats to 104 seats. On 1 January 1970, the Vidhan Parishad was abolished leaving the state with a unicameral legislature. The legislature comprises the governor and the Punjab Legislative Assembly, which is the highest political organ in the state. The governor has

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