Portraits of 70 freedom fighters to be unveiled at Delhi Assembly

NEW DELHI: In a unique gesture to boost the spirit patriotism among citizens, the Delhi Assembly will unveil portraits of 70 famous freedom movement leaders and historical personalities, with each portrait representing each Assembly constituency in the Capital.

These portraits will be placed on the walls of the Assembly, with a brief description of the leader on it. Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Tipu Sultan and Rani Chennamma would be among the 70 famous freedom movement leaders and historical personalities whose portraits will adorn the Assembly walls.

These portraits will be inaugurated on Republic Day.

Each portrait will be one-and-a-half feet wide and two-and-a-half feet long and framed in black, and honour martyrs who fought for the country between 1760 and 1947.

According to sources, Guru Darshan Singh Binkal, the artist behind the paintings, said that for the past 27 years, he has been painting portraits of martyrs so that they "live on." "I have been painting many martyrs who are unknown to most people," the 52-year-old said.

Binkal belongs to the Shaheed Smriti Chetna Samiti, an organisation working to spread awareness about martyrs who gave their lives for the country's freedom.

"We have only one goal – to instil patriotism in the minds of people. People are forgetting the freedom fighters and their sacrifice. They only know the fake heroes," Prem Kumar Shukla, general secretary of the Chetna Samiti, said.

He said that children must know about martyrs so that they are "inspired to do something similar for the nation".

The organisation, started by retired schoolteacher Ravi Chandra Gupta in 1997, conducts exhibitions of paintings of martyrs across the country.

"Even the Indian government does not have as much data as we have on martyrs," Shukla claims proudly.