Kamal Nath row: Congress doesn't care about 84 victims, says Phoolka

Firing a fresh salvo at the Congress Party for appointing Kamal Nath as the party general secretary and in-charge of Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the grand old party of not being bothered about the state and only caring about people with money and muscle power.

"Appointing him (Kamal Nath) as the charge of Punjab, the Congress has clearly sent a message that it doesn't care about the victim of 1984. It doesn't care about Punjab, it doesn't care about the law abiding citizens of the country. It only cares about the people who have money power and muscle power," AAP leader and senior lawmaker H.S. Phoolka told ANI.

Phoolka said Kamal Nath was the one leader, who was leading the mob at Gurudwara Rakabganj Sahib on November 1, 1984 and the mob set the Gurduwara on fire.

"Then it burnt two Sikhs over there. Kamal Nath is the one leader whose name came in the newspapers first of all. On November 2, the newspapers reported that Kamal Nath was leading the mob at Rakabganj Sahib. On November 3, the newspapers again reported the same. The Congress has been shielding him, has been rewarding him, for obvious reasons that he did under his master's voice," he added.

The Congress Party yesterday made important changes in its leadership in three states, including Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, where the polls are due to be held next year.

The Congress appointed senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad as the state in-charge of Uttar Pradesh and Kamal Nath as state in-charge of Punjab and Haryana respectively.

Azad and Nath have replaced Madhusudan Mistry and Shakeel Ahmad, who were earlier state in-charges of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab and Haryana.

Earlier on Saturday, the Congress won six seats in the Rajya Sabha polls and the BJP-led alliance made significant gains with 12 seats in the biennial elections.

The other major gainer in the elections held for 27 seats across seven states include the Samajwadi Party, which won seven seats in Uttar Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party won two seats.

Out of the 58 seats that fell vacant in the Upper House this summer, the NDA has now won 23, improving upon the 18 seats it held earlier. The Congress, which held 15 of these seats, now has nine.