Tytler quits after nudge from PM

NRI Affairs Minister Jagdish Tytler yesterday submitted his resignation from the Union Cabinet after he was indicted by the Nanavati Commission for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The resignation came hours after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the Lok Sabha that the government would consider re-examining specific cases of instigation of violence mentioned in the Nanavati Commission report.

Tytler, a three-term Lok Sabha member from Delhi Sadar, met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the evening and tendered his resignation. Gandhi forwarded the resignation to the Prime Minister.

"I do not want to embarrass the government or my party by being a minister when an enquiry is under way," he said, while seeking a time-bound probe into the charges.

Asked why he chose to submit his resignation to Gandhi and not to the Prime Minister, Tytler said, "She is my leader and the Congress party had made me a minister. Therefore, I requested her to forward it to the Prime Minister."

Tytler also emphasised that he had not quit under pressure. "I have 100 per cent backing of the party. Nobody had asked me to resign. If I had been isolated, I would have been asked to resign," he said.

During the day, Tytler met the Prime Minister twice. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmad Patel, political secretary to Gandhi, were also present during the second meeting that took place in the evening.

Ever since the Nanavati Commission's report was tabled in Parliament on Monday, the Opposition as well as the Left parties had been demanding Tytler's resignation.

The resignation was welcomed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left, which also demanded action against Congress MP Sajjan Kumar and others indicted by the commission.

Recommending necessary action against Tytler, the commission's report said there was "credible" evidence that Tytler had "very probably" organised attacks against Sikhs in the Capital during the riots that erupted in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination. But the action taken report submitted by the government ruled out any action against the 61-year-old Congress MP.