Chandigarh: BJP leader Tarun Chugh on Saturday asked Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Congress’ state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu to clarify if they have endorsed naming Jagdish Tytler as a permanent invitee to the Delhi Congress’ new executive committee.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also lodged a strong protest over the issue.
Tytler’s name had earlier figured in connection with the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.
In a statement issued here, BJP national general secretary Chugh said, “Tytler has been named as one of the key Congress leaders in Delhi, but he, Kamal Nath and Sajjan Kumar continue to be the blue-eyed boys of the party in spite of the fact that their role in the riots against Sikhs has been always highlighted by many witnesses.”
“Sidhu had confessed that he barely escaped the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 and now he feels proud of being a leader of the Congress?” he said.
Chugh said Sikh leaders, including Channi and Sidhu, owe an explanation to the people of Punjab for being part of the Congress.
AAP MLA Baljinder Kaur also asked Channi and Sidhu to clarify their stand.
In a joint statement, Kaur and party spokesperson Manwinder Singh Giaspura said that “the Congress has not done justice to the Sikhs, but when will it stop rubbing salt into the wounds of the 1984 massacre”.
“This decision of the Congress high command has once again exposed the mindset of the Congress about the 1984 massacre (anti-Sikh riots),” Giaspura said.
“It is clear that the Congress can never give justice to the Sikhs, although the people of Punjab believed in the Congress many times after 1984. But the Congress has always betrayed the Sikhs and the Punjabis,” the AAP spokesperson said.
Also read: 4 commissions, 9 committees & 2 SITs – the long road to justice for 1984 Sikh killings
The AAP leaders said that Channi and Sidhu, along with all Congress leaders, should explain their stand on the “honour bestowed” on Tytler.
SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema asked the Punjab chief minister to tell Punjabis why he gave his “consent” for the appointment of Tytler to a “prestigious” Congress panel.
He said that such acts amounted to “sprinkling salt on the festering wounds” of the Sikh community.
It is even more shocking that the chief minister has not objected to the appointment till now, Cheema said.
“This proves that Channi does not have any moral courage and is even ready to sell off the interests of the Sikh community as well as Punjabis at large to save his chair. Punjabis will not forget this betrayal, he said.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur also strongly objected to the Congress party’s move.
“It is an act that has hurt the sentiments of Sikhs,” she said in a statement.
She also questioned the Congress’ appointment of Tytler as the party’s permanent invitee.
Ahead of the civic body polls in the national capital early next year, the Delhi Congress on Thursday got its new executive committee.
Congress national general secretary KC Venugopal in a statement had said Congress president Sonia Gandhi has approved the formation of the executive committee.
The list of permanent invitees included senior leaders JP Agarwal, Ajay Maken, Kapil Sibal, Janardan Dwivedi, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Subhash Chopra and Tytler.