Rajguru, a hero forgotten on Martyrs' Day

Pune: While the entire country will be remembering national heroes Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru for their martyrdom on March 23, the postal department seems to have forgotten the sacrifice of Shivram Hari Rajguru, on whom a postal stamp was released in New Delhi last year. The last postal stamp of Rajguru was sold by the Government Post Office (GPO) in Pune on October 25, 2013 and since then they are out of stock of the stamp.
While descendants of Rajguru feel that Indian postal department should have come up with more postal stamps on him, the department has not given any such requisition for more quota of stamps on Rajguru.
President Pranab Mukherjee had released a commemorative postal stamp on Rajguru at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on March 22, 2013. After its release, the Pune post office sold 7,000 stamps in seven months till they went out of stock.
Pune GPO officials said, "The sale of stamps on Rajguru had started from the day it was released. In Pune, we sold 7,000 postal stamps and earned a revenue of Rs 35,000. The last postal stamp on Rajguru was sold on October 25, 2013. At present we do not have his stamps."
Rajguru's family feels that the postal department should bring out more stamps. The martyr's great grandson Satyashil Rajguru said, "When it was released, I had bought 500 tickets for myself. There was very good response from people regarding the stamp. I feel the postal department should come up with more stamps on Rajguru as they help in motivating citizens."
Not just common people, even the Rajguru family is finding it difficult to get his stamps. "Even after its release, the stamp was not available in Pune. I had to write a letter to the post officials to make it available in Pune. I have kept some stamps with me but apart from that our family members also do not get these stamps," Satyashil told dna.
anurag.bende@dnaindia.net