Rahul 'afraid' of reprimanding party leaders accused in anti-Sikh riots: SAD

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal Wednesday asked why Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was "afraid" of taking action against senior party leaders Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath for their alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader further asked the Gandhi scion to reveal whether he was waiting for the court to convict the veteran leaders before taking action against them.

"It seems Rahul is afraid to take action against the perpetrators of a genocide," the former Punjab deputy chief minister said.

The Congress chief should explain his "silence" and also clarify why he tried to "mislead" the people by claiming that none of the Congress leaders were involved in the riots, he added.

The Delhi High Court had on Monday sentenced Congress leader Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment for conspiring to commit murder during the riots in which thousands of Sikhs were killed after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

Badal said while convicting Kumar, the court had even pointed out that "political patronage" was extended to the convicts and demanded that the Election Commission take action against the Congress.

"This is a fit case for derecognisation of the Congress (party)," he claimed.

He further said that the SAD would continue its fight to get justice for all the 3,000 victims.

"We will take each and every case to its logical conclusion and ensure that all Congressmen responsible for the barbarism are brought to justice and hanged for their crimes against humanity," he said.

The SAD chief thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for paying heed to the party's request to reopen all cases pertaining to the riots.

"We are thankful to Modi ji for acceding to our request which has already led to two convictions," he said.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Gobind Singh Longowal suggested that the witnesses and lawyers associated with the cases be felicitated at the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal body of Sikhs.

Longowal announced that the witnesses Jagdish Kaur, Nirpreet Kaur and Jagseer Singh as well as senior advocates H S Phoolka, R S Cheema and Gurbaksh Singh and their respective teams would be honoured at the Akal Takht on December 26.

Meanwhile, party's core committee passed a resolution condemning the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly vitiating the atmosphere in the state prior to the Panchayat elections by "resorting to large scale irregularities".

Though, the SAD was not contesting the panchayat elections, slated for December 30, on the party symbol, workers aligned with it were allegedly not allowed to enter government offices to file their nominations.

The core committee noted that the State Election Commission (SEC) was allegedly failing in its responsibility to hold free and fair elections.