Bhagat Singh's commemorative coin sparks a row

Khatkar Kalan (Punjab), Sep 27 (IANS) The commemorative coins released Saturday on freedom fighter Bhagat Singh at his ancestral village Khatkar Kalan in Punjab's Nawanshahr district generated a political controversy with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal objecting to the photograph of the martyr used on the coins.

Badal pointed out to union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, who was present at the function here to mark the 101st birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh, that his photograph in a hat, which has been embossed on the new coins, was not right.

'I would like to point out that the official photograph of Shaheed Bhagat Singh is that in a turban,' Badal pointed out.

An embarrassed Ambika Soni told Badal that the coins have been issued by the union finance ministry and she would take up the matter with it.

'Even Congress leaders from Punjab have pointed out the hat issue to me. I will take up the matter with the finance ministry,' Soni said.

Badal said that even the statue of Bhagat Singh inside the Parliament House complex in Delhi was one in which the martyr was shown in a turban.

The function was held at this ancestral village of Bhagat Singh, 100 km from Chandigarh.