Commenting on Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s clean chit to the party for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Jarnail Singh, vice-chairperson of the Punjabi Academy, Delhi, on Sunday said it was shocking to hear Mr. Gandhi’s statement as it was a ‘blatant lie’.
“It is shocking to hear Mr. Rahul’s statement when all the main culprits from H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, Dharamdas Shastri to Kamal Nath were from Congress,” Mr. Singh said. Mr. Singh added that Rajiv Gandhi had justified the carnage by saying that “when a big tree falls, the earth below shakes”.
He alleged that the riots were carried out with the late Prime Minister’s nod.
“This is the very reason why Rahul Gandhi does not dare to remove Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath from the party. He fears these leaders can spill the beans on late Rajiv Gandhi’s role behind the genocide if removed from the party,” Mr. Singh added.
“Army was not deployed, police fired at innocent Sikhs, helped the rioters, refused to register FIR’s and culprit leaders were promoted to the ranks of Cabinet Ministers and still Rahul Gandhi dares to say Congress party had no role in Sikh genocide? Nanavati commission of inquiry clearly said that carnage was an ‘organised crime’ by Congress leaders and the government of the day turned a blind eye towards incidents,” he said.
He also attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for not taking a serious stand and punishing the guilty.