Wish Rajiv Gandhi had 'held talks' with Sikhs in 1984: BJP

Responding to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's suggestion that the government should 'reach out' to the masses to hear their problems, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raised the grand old party's dark past and said former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi should have 'talked' with the Sikh community before the 1984 riots.

"We condemn Rahul Gandhi's statement. However, we sincerely wish that Rajiv Gandhi had invited the Sikhs for an open discussion and had not said that 'when a big tree falls, the earth shakes'," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told the media here.

This fresh outburst comes in the wake of Rahul's tweet supporting the concerns raised by Bollywood star Aamir Khan over 'rising intolerance' in the nation.

"Instead of branding all those who question the Govt & Modiji- as unpatriotic, anti national or 'motivated. The Govt would do better to reach out to people to understand what's disturbing them. That's the way to solve problems in India- not by bullying, threatening and abusing," he said in a series of tweets.

Senior lawyer HS Phoolka, who has been fighting for the rights of 1984 Sikh riots victims, had earlier demanded that Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna Award be withdrawn and accused him of justifying the 1984 'genocide'.

He had also released the footage of a speech made by Rajiv where he was seen justifying the anti-Sikh riots following Indira Gandhi's assassination.

The Congress vice-president had along with his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi led a march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier this month to petition President Pranab Mukherjee over the rising intolerance in the country. He had also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's studded silence on the issue.

The Congress had urged President Mukherjee to use his political and moral authority to convey to Prime Minister Modi that his stand on the matter was 'unacceptable'.