BJP attacks Congress over anti-Sikh riots after court verdict

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday slammed the Congress and said that the Rahul-Gandhi led party denied justice to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims. 

BJP also targetted Congress' Kamal Nath and said that the latter was removed by Congress as the party's in-charge for the Punjab Assembly elections following protests by Sikhs. Targeting Nath, who has been accused by some Sikh bodies of having links to the riots, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad noted that the Congress had removed him as its in-charge for the Punjab polls last year following protests by people.

The statement by Prasad comes a day after Delhi court gave death sentence to Yashpal Singh and life term to Naresh Sehrawat for the killing of two Sikh men in Mahipal village in South Delhi in 1984.

Prasad said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to carry out the probe which led to the sentencing.

"We (BJP) are very satisfied," the Union minister told reporters about his party's stand on the verdict and added that people needed to be told that the Congress had, during its rule, tried to ensure that the Sikh riot victims did not get justice. The opposition party did it to save its own people, Prasad alleged.

There was no reaction to the court verdict from the Congress on Wednesday, but its spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi had welcomed it on Tuesday.

"The Congress's stand is clear. This is a legal process, a legal process which must be allowed to work out its course and we are very proud, happy and fortunate that it is taking its course," Singhvi had told reporters.

Tuesday's court verdict gave some sort of a balm to those suffering for over 30-35 years, Prasad said.

The law minister said his party wanted to assure the Sikhs, especially those whose families had suffered, that the SIT would probe the cases honestly, without any undue outside interference, and take action against the guilty.

Earlier on Wednesday, Former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had said that UPA chief Sonia Gandhi should be questioned in connection with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. He demanded that the special investigation team summon Sonia for a probe. 

"SIT should summon Sonia Gandhi as the conspiracy (1984 anti-Sikh riots) was hatched at her residence and her husband was in power. Captain Amarinder Singh should also tell her (Sonia) to go for a lie detector test," Badal said as quoted by news agency ANI.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Badal had also expressed satisfaction at the verdict while hitting out at Congress. "Justice has been served, even after 34 years. Cong's attempts to shelter #1984SikhGenocide perpetrators have been defeated due to the SIT by Modi govt which reopened the cases in 2015. I join the Sikh community in expressing satisfaction at just punishment to the two convicts. Now it is the turn of the two big butchers of Delhi - Tytler & Sajjan to face the hangman’s noose. Sikh community also awaits unmasking of role of Gandhi family and other Congress leaders in the execution of the genocide and hopes they also will be proceeded against as per the law," Badal tweeted.

(With PTI Inputs)