Congress did nothing to stop pogrom of Sikhs in 1984: BJP

Criticizing Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's statement on the 1984 anti- Sikh riots, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday asserted that Sikh community's anger against the Congress is justified, and added that the riots was a sponsored pogrom of Sikhs.

"Sikh community's anger is justified. The whole country is agitated because of the interview, and total falsehood by Rahul Gandhi. He wants to say that they did everything possible to stem the riots? Essentially they were not riots. It was a pogrom carried out by the Congress, and thousands of Sikhs were burnt alive," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.

"You (Congress) did not call the military. The police did not fire a single bullet or arrest anybody. And they are giving clean chit to Congress leaders. The essence is Congress did nothing to prevent the pogrom. It was a sponsored pogrom of Sikhs, annihilation or ethnic cleansing which the country has never seen," he added.

Security has been beefed up outside All India Congress Committee's (AICC) office as agitators are likely to stage a protest against Rahul Gandhi's comments about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

In an interview to Times Now editor in chief Arnab Goswami on January 27, Rahul Gandhi said: "The difference between the 1984 riots and the riots in Gujarat was that in 1984, the Government was trying to stop the riots. I remember, I was a child then, I remember the Government was doing everything it could to stop the riots. In Gujarat the opposite was the case. The Government in Gujarat was actually abetting and pushing the riots further.