Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a ceremony organised on the occasion of the 553rd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, at Shahid Minar in Kolkata on Monday. PTIChief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that Punjab and West Bengal led India’s independence movement from the front and that the contribution of Punjabis for the nation’s cause was immense.
Attending a function on the occasion of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak’s 553rd birth anniversary at Shahid Minar in Kolkata, Banerjee said, “Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Shaheed Bhagat Singh are all from Punjab. If you visit Andaman’s Cellular Jail and see the list of people who fought against British rule, you will see that people from Punjab and Bengal had taken the lead in the fight against the foreign rule. Therefore, Punjab has a long-standing link with Bengal.”
The majority of Punjab’s population follows Sikhism.
Bengal also shared a deep relationship with Shaheed Bhagat Singh during the independence struggle, she added.
“This is why the name of Punjab was mentioned first when Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana (National Anthem). That was because the people of
Punjab are ready to sacrifice their lives for the country. The people of Punjab are still working in the army, protecting the nation on the border,” the Chief Minister said.
Also, members of the Sikh community urged the CM to get Guru Nanak Bhavan constructed in Kolkata.