New Delhi: A controversy erupted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the renovated Jallianwala Bagh memorial in front of the country. While the Prime Minister showcased multiple development initiatives undertaken by the government to upgrade the complex, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday termed the government's revamp step an "insult to martyrs", saying only a person who does not know the meaning of martyrdom can inflict such an insult.
Taking to Twitter, the former Congress chief tagged a media report on the outrage on social media over the alleged changes at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial complex with many claiming that it was "destroying history" in the name of makeover.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the renovated complex of the Jallianwala Bagh memorial on Saturday.
During the event, Modi also digitally inaugurated the museum galleries at the memorial.
"I am the son of a martyr - I will not tolerate the insult of martyrs at any cost," he said in a tweet in Hindi. "We are against this indecent cruelty."
Congress' deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, in a tweet on Monday, said, "Call me a traditional Indian but I am not a fan of installing disco lights on institutions of importance and dignity."
Such pomp reduces the gravity and horror of the Jallianwala Bagh Smarak to base entertainment, he alleged.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said, "Only those who stayed away from the epic freedom struggle can scandalise thus".
Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill alleged the BJP-led central government project giving a makeover to the "Jallianwala passage is not to preserve but erase the marks of atrocities committed by General Dyer during British rule".
"Central vistafication of Jallianwala Bagh passage is the ultimate insult to those killed on that fatal day! Shame," he said.
Stressing that it is a country's duty to protect its history, Prime Minister Modi had said that events of the past "teach us and give us direction to move forward".
As part of the inaugural event, a wreath-laying ceremony was also held and a two-minute silence was observed in the memory of those killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
A sound and light show was held to depict the events of the day of the massacre.
Over 1,000 people were killed and hundreds wounded on April 13, 1919, when British troops fired indiscriminately on an unarmed gathering of thousands who had assembled in Jallianwala Bagh amid nationwide protests against the Rowlatt Act which had extended wartime repressive measures.