Chandigarh, October 28, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the Aazadi Ki Pehli Ladai Ka Shaheed Smarak in Ambala Cantonment on November 5, Haryana Transport Minister Anil Vij said on Wednesday.
Built at an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore, the national-level memorial will be opened to the public on November 6. Following the inauguration, Shah will address a public meeting at Gandhi Ground in Ambala Cantonment.
Vij urged people to attend the gathering in large numbers, describing it as an occasion to honour the martyrs commemorated at the memorial.
He was addressing BJP office-bearers at Ambala Club during a meeting chaired by state party president Archana Gupta to review preparations for the inauguration programme.
Vij said the state government had issued instructions for students from schools and educational institutions across Haryana to visit the memorial. The initiative aims to familiarise younger generations with the government’s account of the 1857 uprising and its origins in Ambala, ahead of the uprising in Meerut.
The minister said he had been pursuing the construction of the memorial for the past 25 to 30 years. He recalled that while studying history, he found accounts of an armed struggle for Independence in 1857, decades before the formation of the Congress, which he said began in Ambala.
According to Vij, historical documents indicate that at 9 a.m. in 1857, the 60th and 5th Native Infantry regiments sounded the bugle of revolt in Ambala Cantonment, around 10 hours before the uprising in Meerut.
He said many participants in the struggle had not received due recognition, recalling accounts of freedom fighters being tied to trees and shot or subjected to other brutal forms of execution.
“The martyrs of 1857 were also sons of the motherland who joined the struggle for Independence,” Vij said, adding that anyone who took even a single step towards freedom deserved homage, regardless of whether they belonged to the Congress.
Vij, who also holds the Energy portfolio, said the First War of Independence had spread across the country, but there had been no memorial to present its history comprehensively.
He said he had repeatedly raised the demand for the memorial in the Haryana Assembly and that the proceedings were part of the official record. Vij alleged that despite his efforts, the previous Congress government did not build the memorial. The project was approved after the BJP government came to power in Haryana in 2014, he said.
According to the minister, the memorial will present the history of the 1857 uprising through modern technology. Accounts of battles fought in Haryana, Bihar, Punjab and other regions will be displayed to give visitors a broader understanding of the struggle.
FOLLOW NOW
