There was an uproar in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday as Opposition MPs demanded that the Chandigarh airport be named after freedom fighter Bhagat Singh. The demand came on Martyrs’ Day – when Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were hanged in 1931.

Communist Party of India(Marxist) member Ritabrata Banerjee said the Punjab government had agreed to name the airport after Bhagat Singh. “But the Haryana chief minister [Manohar Lal Khattar] had refused. They want to name the airport after Mangal Sein,” Banerjee was quoted as saying by PTI. Sein is a late Bharatiya Janata Party leader who had served as the Haryana deputy chief minister from 1977 to 1979. He died in 1990.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, however, said Bhagat Singh was respected by everyone. “We have never said it...It is not proper to make such sweeping statements,” he said.

As the uproar continued in the Upper House, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien asked Naqvi whether the government had taken note of the suggestion made by Opposition MPs, to which the minister said “yes”, The Times of India reported.