Of Fathers & Sons:

Chapter 1: The Father

It would soon be autumn. There was a distinct chill in the crisp morning air. Long, hot, humid days had turned shorter & cooler. At last, it was breathable again!
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But Kishan Singh was a distraught man, unable to eat or sleep, much less able to notice turning of the seasons. Vidyavati, his inconsolable wife, was no better either. For the old couple, writing on the wall was clear: they were doomed to losing their young son to the gallows!
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After agonising over it for days & going against his better sense, just like any father, Kishan S. decided to make a last ditch effort to rescue his son from an almost certain execution. He didn’t want to later live with the regret that he didn’t do enough whilst he could’ve.
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So Kishan Singh wrote a petition to the Special Tribunal, requesting another chance to be granted to his son to prove his innocence and spare the gallows.
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Chapter 2: The Son

Being October, even jail was a bearable place now, until the setting in of the bitter cold winter ahead.

But for Bhagat Singh, there was no respite! He was beside himself with all consuming anger & pain of betrayal.

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He was unable to fathom how his own father could go behind his back & sabotage the cause dearest to his heart like this! It was even more difficult for Bhagat S. to reconcile to this act of weakness by his father bcos Kishan S. himself was a revolutionary & a freedom fighter!
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Chapter 3: The Letter

After much deliberation, Bhagat Singh, instead of confronting Kishan Singh in person, decided to put his feelings in black & white on paper as a letter to his father & go public with his reaction to Kishan Singh’s act.

Few excerpts:
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• Inspite of all the sentiments and feelings of a father, I don't think you were at all entitled to make such a move on my behalf without even consulting me.

• I have always been acting independently without having cared for your approval or disapproval.
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• You know that we have been pursuing a definite policy in this trial. Every action of mine ought to have been consistent with that policy, my principle and my programme

• Had the situation been otherwise, even then I would have been the last man to offer defence.
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•I have always been of opinion that all the political workers should be indifferent and should never bother about the legal fight in the law courts and should boldly bear the heaviest possible sentences inflicted upon them.
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• My life is not so precious, at least to me, as you may probably think it to be. It is not at all worth buying at the cost of my principles.
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• I feel as though I have been stabbed at the back. Had any other person done it, I would have considered it to be nothing short of treachery. But in your case, let me say that it has been a weakness - a weakness of the worst type.
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•This was the time where everybody's mettle was being tested. Let me say, father, you have failed.

•In the end, I would like to inform you and my other friends and all the people interested in my case, that I have not approved of your move.
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• My friends in Borstal Jail will take it as a treachery & betrayal on my part. I shall not even get an opportunity to clear my position bfore them.

•I want that public should know all the details about this complication & therefore, I request you to publish this letter.
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https://www.marxists.org/archive/bhagat-singh/1930/10/04.htm

Go through the letter & decide for yourself if you can take Bhagat Singh’s & a merci-petitioner’s name in the same breath & place them together on the same pedestal...