New Delhi: Continuing its attack on late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the BJP on Thursday claimed that the “instructions to kill” citizens during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots came from the Prime Minister’s office (PMO). “It is on record in the Nanavati Commission, which probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. The biggest genocide in which the government killed its own citizens, those instructions to kill came directly from then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s office,” the BJP’s official Twitter handle posted. “The country awaits justice for this karma,” it added. However, the BJP’s latest allegation is not substantiated by the very source it cites. The 2005 report by the one-man commission headed by Justice GT Nanavati, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, said that there is “absolutely no evidence” that Rajiv
Gandhi had suggested or organised attacks on Sikhs. “It was suggested that Shri Rajiv Gandhi had told one of his officials that Sikhs should be taught a lesson. The Commission finds no substance in that allegation. The evidence in this behalf is very vague… The evidence on the other hand suggest that Shri Rajiv Gandhi had showed much concern about what was happening in Delhi. He had issued an appeal for remaining calm and maintaining communal harmony. In view of the complaints received by him that people were not able to contact the police on telephone No. 100, he had immediately called some police officers and told them to take immediate action so that anyone who wanted to contact the police could do so. He had even visited the affected areas on the night of 1-11-84,” the report read.
As the controversy re-ignited, Congress leader Ahmed Patel blamed the BJP for being indirectly responsible for Rajiv’s assassination. “Who is responsible for his assassination,” Patel asked and replied that it was “the BJP-backed V P Singh government which refused to provide Rajiv with additional security & left him with just one PSO (personal security officer), despite credible intelligence inputs and repeated requests.” Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday tried to divert the issue at a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, saying that Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination “does not mean we can’t speak about corruption and misrule during his government.”