Dubai: Around 500 members of Sikh groups protested outside the Congress office in Delhi on Thursday demanding that the names of the party leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots be revealed.
The protest comes after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s admission during a television interview on Monday that “some Congress men were probably involved” in the anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
The protesters, belonging to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), broke barricades, raised slogans against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and waved black flags.
Protesters were also seen flashing placards with the message: “CBI should question Rahul Gandhi”.
Though welcoming Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s demand to hold a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi), Manjeet Singh G.K. questioned Kejriwal taking support from the Congress “which was behind ‘84 riots”.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Wednesday met Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung and submitted a request for an SIT to probe the riots in which more than 3,000 people, mostly Sikhs, were killed.
According to police officials, a few protesters were detained and taken to a nearby police station.
The protest continued for an hour, which also saw police using water canons to disperse the crowd.
Late on Wednesday, the Delhi Government decided on a probe by a Special Investigation Team into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The politically sensitive decision to form the SIT to investigate the riots which left around 3000 Sikhs dead following the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 may create trouble in the relationship between ruling party of Delhi Aam Aadmi Party and Congress which has been providing outside support to Kejriwal dispensation. But the move was welcomed by riot victims with one of their prominent lawyers saying it gave them a “ray of hope”.
“Government is going to form a SIT to probe the 1984 riots. The modalities of the probe will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Friday. Lt Governor Najeeb Jung has in principle agreed to the proposal to appoint the SIT,” Public Works Department Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.
The Indian government on Thursday sought to control damage as it said the episode was “extremely sad and unfortunate” and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already apologised several times for it.
“As far as 1984 riots are concerned, these were extremely sad and unfortunate. The Prime Minister has apologised several times both in Parliament and outside it,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters in the national capital.
Refusing to say anything further on this, he said the cases filed in connection with the riots are sub-judice.
However, the Congress leader added that “UPA government has always been sympathetic towards the victims.”
His comments came amid a raging controversy over Gandhi’s remarks that some Congress members may have probably been involved in the riots that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Gandhi had also said that the then Rajiv Gandhi government had tried to stop the riots.
A Sikh rights group that has filed human rights violation cases against the Congress party and its leader Sonia Gandhi said it will subpoena the party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi before a US court in the 1984 anti-Sikh rights lawsuit, a demand that has been strongly rejected by the political party’s attorney here.
The group said it will subpoena Gandhi “as a witness before New York federal court in the pending 1984 Sikh rights violation lawsuit.”
Reacting to SFJ’s demand, eminent Indian-American Ravi Batra told PTI that any requests for subpoena issued on Gandhi will be responded to with a motion to dismiss.
Batra, who represents the Congress party in US courts, also strongly objected to SFJ’s demand saying the group should not build “visitor-suites in their sand castles.
“Staying out of the internal politics of India, but dealing only with the legal issues raised by SFJ’s perpetual desire to raise false public expectations — any subpoena issued by SFJ on Rahul Gandhi will be met with a motion to quash,” Batra said.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal is also learnt to have written to President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to commute to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to Devinderpal Singh Bhullar of the Khalistan Liberation Force.
Bhullar was convicted and awarded the death penalty for his role in a 1993 bomb blast in New Delhi which killed nine persons and injured 25 others.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear in an open court the plea by Bhullar for commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment.
—Compiled from agencies
