A file picture of Zail Singh outside the cell where he was confined from 1938 to 1943.

Chandigarh, Dec. 20: Ten years after Zail Singh?s death in December 1994, the Punjab government has decided to ?preserve? the 8 ft by 12 ft cell in Faridkot jail where he spent five years.

Jail parliamentary secretary Malkiat Singh Birmi today said that since the jail would be demolished, preserving the cell would be the best tribute to the former president who began life tilling the fields and rose to the country?s highest office in 1982.

?Gianiji did a lot for the people of Punjab and the country. While the jail will be razed to pave way for a new one, the cell will be preserved as a national monument. Though he was jailed for political reasons, the charge against him pertained to the stealing of a kettle,? Birmi said.

Zail Singh was jailed by then Maharaja of Faridkot Harinder Singh for daring to open a branch of the Congress in the state. He was treated like a hardened criminal and kept in solitary confinement from 1938-1943.

?The maharaja regarded the opening of the office as a challenge and Zail Singh as an arch enemy. The former president had also organised a parallel government in the state that incensed the maharaja. He was also almost dragged by a jeep on a road before being jailed,? said Tarlochan Singh, who was Zail Singh?s press secretary, on phone from New Delhi.

?This is the least the government could have done for a man who only thought about the nation and died without adding a single foot to the land he had in his possession before plunging into politics.

?Even Jawaharlal Nehru was so impressed by Zail Singh that he visited Faridkot to see for himself the party work begun by Gianiji in the erstwhile princely state. This is something that should have been done long ago?. He was one of the most honest politicians the country has ever seen.?

Even after his release in 1943, Zail Singh was harassed and had to spend some time outside the state. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi?s message of non-violence, he canvassed support for the freedom movement in Faridkot during this period.

As minister for revenue and agriculture, Zail Singh ensured socio-economic justice for farm labourers, small cultivators and tenants. He was instrumental for conferment of proprietary rights on tillers, abolition of absentee landlordism and security of tenancy.

Zail Singh?s daughter Gurdeep Virdi, who was his personal physician when he was President, said she was grateful to the government for the decision. ?My father may have been averse to the decision had he been alive, but we welcome the move. The cell is part of Indian history.?

Birmi said apart from the cell roof, which needed repair, nothing would be altered. ?The jail is over 150 years old. I have given orders that the cell where Gianiji was incarcerated be kept as it is. The walls, too, are made of mud. We will keep Gianiji?s books and other things he used in the jail there,? he said.

The chakki that Zail Singh used to grind wheat in jail and the fetters that kept him chained to his cell will also be preserved.