New Delhi, Nov 1 (PTI) The BJP took out a protest march in Delhi seeking an apology from Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi over the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, and blamed the opposition party for “deliberately” organising a rally on the anniversary of the riots.
The wounds of the anti-Sikh riots are still fresh, the BJP said, slamming the Congress for “insulting” the sentiments of the Sikh community.
The BJP march happened in parallel to the INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and alleged irregularities in the poll process.
Leading the protest march in west Delhi’s Hari Nagar, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the violence against Sikhs in 1984 was a “well-planned” massacre and not a riot or spontaneous happening.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, state BJP president Harsh Malhotra, Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Supreme Court senior advocate H S Phoolka participated in the protest march, which was also attended by many Sikh leaders.
The protesters marched from Sikh-dominated Hari Nagar to Tilak Nagar areas, seeking justice for victims of the 1984 riots.
Addressing the protesters ahead of the march, Puri recalled that he was in Geneva in 1984 when the violence began and how his Hindu friends protected his parents living in Delhi.
“According to official figures, a total of 2,733 Sikhs in Delhi were killed in a cold-blooded manner in the violence. It was a well-planned massacre and a genocide and crime against humanity as pointed out by the courts, not any spontaneous riot. Congress leaders should think seriously about it,” Puri said.
Puri also said that the attackers had reached former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s house in Delhi but his Hindu son-in-law sent them back, claiming he lived there.
Referring to the INDIA bloc rally, he asked why November 1 was the only possible date for organising a political programme when another date could easily have been chosen.
“Even today neither the community nor the nation has fully come to terms with what it witnessed in 1984. Nor had the Congress appropriately apologised to the victims. Therefore, choosing November 1 for a political event was inappropriate,” he said.
Delhi Chief Minister Gupta, wearing a black headband at the protest, recalled how a Sikh neighbour took shelter at her parents’ home during the violence. The violence forced lakhs of Sikhs to cut their hair to protect their identities and save themselves, she said.
What happened in November 1984 was that not murder of democracy, Gupta asked that the Sikh community was asking a “pertinent question to those who today carry copies of the Constitution and speak about democracy” .
Targeting the Congress leadership, the chief minister said that neither the Congress nor the Gandhi family could escape responsibility for what happened to the Sikh community in 1984.
Delhi BJP president Malhotra alleged that Rahul Gandhi, by “deliberately” organising a Congress rally on the anniversary of the 1984 genocide, was rubbing salt into the wounds of the victim families.
This reflected the same mindset as Rajiv Gandhi’s infamous statement, “when a big tree falls, the earth shakes”, Malhotra stated.
Speakers at the protest pointed out that widespread violence against Sikhs started on October 31 and continued till November 3. PTI VIT SKY
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