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Celebrating Birth Anniversary Of Martyr Sukraraj
By KTM Metro Reporter
August 2, 2012: the Martyr Memorial Committee held a function to celebrate the 119th birth anniversary of Martyr Sukraraj Shastri at his statue at Pulchowk in Lalitpur to pay tribute to him today. They garlanded the statue of Shastri with flowers. Speaking at the function, politician Dirgharaj Prasain, journalist Ram Krishna Karmacharya, Usha Singh, daughter of Martyr Chiniya Lal Singh, and others said that his contribution to democracy was incomparable to anyone and added that it would be a true tribute to him if everyone followed the path shown by him, ‘The Himalayan Times’ of today writes quoting the state-news agency RSS.
Shukraraj Shastri was actually Shukraraj Joshi born in Lalitpur. He did Shastri in Sanskrit in Benares, India. Thus, his last name came to be Shastri. He was a religious person and delivered speeches on Gita at neighborhoods, and sometimes, he talked about the sufferings of the people. That had been enough for the then Rana/Shah rulers to charge him with going against the regime. That became treason punishable by the capital punishment.
Shukraraj Shastri was one of the senior martyrs among the four martyrs such as Sukraraj, Dasharath Chand, Dharma Bhakta and Gangalal. Gangalal was the youngest one and the most energetic and faced the bullets of the Rana killer bravely. Dharma Bhakta was a wrestler. He managed to widen the loop when he was hanged, and came out alive. According to the law, if somebody survived the hanging meant s/he should be freed but the Rana regime did not follow the rule of law and again hanged him to death.
Shukraraj Shastri also was academically highly qualified man. He wrote many books on different subjects. He also openly told the public that he was going to die but also going to live forever meant going to be immortal after the Rana/Shah indicted him of treason and pronounced him the capital punishment.
The Rana regime hanged Shukraraj on a Khari tree at Pachali in Teku of Kathmandu in January 1940 provoking the people’s wrath against the Rana regime. That was the beginning of the fall of the Rana rule in Nepal. His father holding the legs of his lifeless son Shukraraj Shastri said, “you have done a great deed, I bless you, my son.”
