New Delhi/Gurugram: Three BJP MPs were reprimanded by party chief Nitin Nabin for visiting the family of former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who was convicted in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case, to offer their condolences on his death.
Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Yogender Chandolia visited Kumar’s residence and met members of his family.
The BJP has found itself in a bind as the gesture is in sharp contrast over its long-held position on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. On Friday, it had termed the visit by the three leaders as a personal one.
Kumar was convicted in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and was serving two life terms for his role in the riots. He died on 20 August in New Delhi at the age of 80. With the Punjab elections all set to take place next year, the visit has the capacity to snowball into a major controversy, party leaders told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached out to Chandolia, Sehrawat and Bidhuri for a comment and the report will be updated once they respond.
According to sources, H.S.Phoolka, advocate and former Member of the Punjab Assembly, expressed his strong displeasure on the visit of the BJP MPs.
“Strongly condemn visit of 3 MP’s Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Yogender Chandolia to mass murderer Sajjan Kumar’s residence to offer condolences on his death,” Phoolka had posted on X on August 28.
“This when #BJP has always supported our quest for justice against this culprits and supported us in ensuring that he stays in Jail. Sympathy should be reserved for victims and their families-many of whom live the horror of those days even till now. I call for the boycott of these 3 MPs.”
According to sources, the central leadership of the party is quite upset especially as it comes months before the Punjab elections. Sources within the party said that Nabin expressed displeasure over the visit.
“It seems like the three acted on their own without the party’s approval. With the Punjab elections just around the corner, this may snowball into a major issue. The party is mindful of that and which is why the three leaders were summoned,” said a senior party leader.
Phoolka reacted to the action taken by Nabin. “Greateful to @NitinNabin ji for taking a strong stance on the issue. This is what leadership should look like, as opposed to the hypocrisy of the Congress all these years. BJP has fought for this issue as their own for 40 years, starting from ……..#1984SikhGenocide,” he posted.
Kumar was a towering leader within the Jat community that has significant electoral and political power across rural Haryana as well as Delhi.
He represented the erstwhile Outer Delhi Lok Sabha constituency multiple times/ The South, West and North-West Delhi Parliamentary constituencies were carved out of this seat. “Naturally the BJP MPs felt the need to at least offer their condolences as it is culturally important for the segment,” said a leader.
The three BJP leaders who visited Kumar’s residence belong to these three constituencies. While Kamaljeet Sehrawat represent West Delhi parliamentary constituency, Bidhuri is the MP from South Delhi and Chandolia from North West Delhi.
After West Bengal, the BJP has set its eyes on Punjab where it will contest all 117 Assembly seats in the upcoming elections.
BJP general secretary (organisation) B.L.Santosh, who was on a two-day visit to the state to review organisation work, expressed confidence of BJP doing well.
Recently Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda’s remarks on Kumar’s death had put him in the middle of a controversy. The BJP MPs’ visit has added another layer to the row.
The three were present at Kumar’s final bhog ceremony.
“In our Haryanvi society, and the outer Delhi area shares the same culture, it is considered important for political leaders to visit a family whenever there is a death, to do ‘mokhan‘, to offer condolences,” the above-mentioned leader said.
“I remember people whose ‘mokhan‘ I missed telling me to my face that I did not even bother to come when someone in their family died. In our times, a political leader could skip a wedding in his constituency, but he did not dare skip a ‘mokhan‘.”
Hooda had also drawn sharp criticism from the Sikh community and from within his own party.
A senior political leader told The Print that there was no doubt Deepender’s father Bhupinder Singh Hooda had a close association with Sajjan Kumar, who was a frequent visitor to the senior Hooda’s Delhi residence during his years as Haryana chief minister.
The leader said that even after Sajjan Kumar could not contest elections because of his case, and his brother Ramesh Kumar became MP from the seat between 2009 and 2014, the family too enjoyed proximity with Hooda and with several other Jat leaders from Haryana.
It is this old association, and not any recent political calculation, that explains why the Hoodas found themselves under the scanner the moment Sajjan Kumar died, the leader said.
BJP national spokesperson and Sikh leader R.P.Singh said that the three MPs should have avoided the visit and that they have been reprimanded by the top brass is in line with the BJP’s ideology.
“Rajniti se badi samaaj niti hoti hai (Social policy is greater than politics). I had pointed out that they should not have gone in the first place. Kumar was convicted in the carnage which claimed thousands of lives. It is because of PM Modi that the SIT was formed in 2015 to reinvestigate the closed cases related to the riots,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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