Sonia & Rahul Gandhi should apologise over Sam Pitroda's remark: BJP

The BJP on Friday demanded that UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi apologise to the nation over their leader Sam Pitroda's reported remarks about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Union minister and BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said Pitroda has made a very "irresponsible" statement about the riots.

"Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must apologise for Sam Pitroda's irresponsible statement that the '1984 Sikh genocide happened, so what'," he told reporters.

Javadekar said that Rahul Gandhi's guide and Rajiv Gandhi's colleague Pitroda had made "a very condemnable" remark in public discourse.

"He said the 1984 genocide where 3,000 Sikhs were killed..'Hua to hua. Hua to kya hua. It happens, so what.

"Today, he has made an even a more dangerous statement. He says that I can acknowledge the pain of Sikh community, but it is not relevant today," he said.

He also claimed that Pitroda said Rajiv Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi would never target a group of people. "Then how he can explain Rajiv's justification of 1984 Sikh genocide by saying 'when a big tree falls, Earth tremors'. If this is not a justification then what it is," he asked.

Javadekar said the issue is relevant today because it is an unresolved saga of atrocities. "And if atrocities against Sikhs and their genocide is not relevant, then tomorrow Pitroda will say partition of the country is also not relevant, ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits is also not relevant."