Chandigarh airport to be renamed after Bhagat Singh, says PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on today's Mann Ki Baat episode said that Chandigarh airport will be renamed after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. "As a tribute to the great freedom fighter, it has been decided that the Chandigarh airport will now be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh."

Many consider this to be a BJP move to one-up AAP's actions honouring the martyr's legacy. When AAP's Bhagwant Mann took oath as the Chief Minister of Punjab, he began his term with a symbolic tribute to Bhagat Singh. AAP also hosted the swearing-in ceremony at Khatkar Kalan, the ancestral village of the iconic freedom fighter.

The event was filled with Basanti yellow, a colour Bhagat Singh favoured for his turbans. It later became symbolic in the revolution as well. CM Mann also wears the yellow turban. After AAP declared Basanti to be the theme of the event, the residents of Khatkar Kalan responded with turbans and dupattas.

After taking the office, CM Mann also declared March 23, the day of Bhagat Singh's martyrdom, to be a public holiday. Now, the BJP appears to lean toward the legacy of Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter largely popular among the youth of rural North India.

However, this is not the first time a proposal to rename the union territory airport after Bhagat Singh has been made. In 2016, the BJP-led Haryana government passed a resolution on it. In 2017, the Opposition alleged that the BJP government in Haryana did not intend to name the airport after Bhagat Singh.

The airport has been a point of powerplay for a while now. Its terminal building falls in Punjab's Mohali town. The Punjab government put up a sign calling it Mohali Airport which upset the Haryana government. The airport project costing Rs 485 crore is a joint venture of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the governments of Punjab and Haryana.