Akali Dal to implement Nanavati report on 1984 riots: Harsimrat

Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal will get the Nanavati Commission report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots implemented to bring those behind the riots before law, newly appointed Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said Tuesday.

Harsimrat, who assumed charge as minister, said that justice has eluded victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots for the last nearly 30 years.

"The NDA government under prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had constituted Nanavati Commission to investigate the riots but unfortunately its report was not implemented by the Congress government. The Akali Dal would get this report implemented in letter and spirit to bring all those perpetrators of this heinous crime behind the bars," she told media persons after taking charge.

Hundreds of Sikhs were targeted and killed in Delhi and other places across India by mobs in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh security guards in October 1984.

Several senior Congress leaders were accused of instigating mobs to target Sikhs during the riots.

Harsimrat, the wife of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, said the days of the central government's discrimination with the state have ended with the formation of the new NDA government at the centre.

"Punjab would be immensely benefitted with the development oriented policies of the (Narendra) Modi government," she said.