On 23^rd March, great patriots, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged by the colonial rulers. They offered the supreme sacrifice of their lives for the cause of freedom of the country. However the dream of these patriots and others who sacrificed their all in the freedom movement, was not fulfilled. Riding on the shoulders of their sacrifices and the struggle of the vast masses, the comprador big capitalists and big landlords reached a compromise with British imperialists and came to power amidst communal carnage in the country. The independence was only formal and converted our country from a colony to a semicolonial, semifeudal country.

Since the implementation of ‘new’ economic policies the hollowness of the ‘independence’ has been increasingly exposed. Today this fact has to be admitted even by those who had been making tall claims of the anti-imperialism of the Indian ruling classes ignoring the reality.

It is the same ruling classes which are today handing over sector after sector of the economy to the imperialist powers. They are selling not only the present but even the future of the country. The whole country is undergoing deep crisis- its industries and agriculture and the livelihood of the vast masses is being threatened.

The present ‘swadeshi’ chanting rulers of the country are creating new records of service to imperialism. They are reducing struggle against imperialist stranglehold over the country to mere tokenism while MNCs are being allowed unbridled entry into all aspects of life of the country. No wonder that these forces had not only kept themselves aloof from the struggle against British colonial rulers but had even supported them.  The founder of RSS had termed these self-sacrificing patriots- Bhagat Singh and his comrades as ‘misguided’ youth while RSS cadre were busy in ‘character-building’. This had nothing to do with freedom or self-reliance of the country.

The observance of the anniversary of their martyrdom has therefore become much more relevant. Let us dedicate ourselves to intensify our struggle against imperialism and the domestic reactionaries subservient to it.