Amarinder's remark insult to anti-Sikh riot victims: Phoolka

Chandigarh: Noted lawyer and crusader for justice to anti-Sikh riots' victims H S Phoolka on Saturday said Congress leader Amarinder Singh's remark against him was an insult to the victims of the 1984 carnage.

Phoolka also charged the former Punjab Chief Minister with speaking in favour of anti-Sikh riots accused Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath in order to grab the post of Punjab Congress President.

"Amarinder has leveled an allegation against me that I have been making false statements pertaining to 1984 riots to grab the headlines in newspapers. By saying so, Amarinder has insulted the victims of anti-Sikh riots," Phoolka said while addressing media today.

"Before making such allegations, you must have thought about the victims who have been fighting their cases for so long," said Phoolka, who had resigned from all posts held in Aam Aadmi Party in September but remains a member.

On November 19, Phoolka had demanded that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi be stripped of Bharat Ratna award as he had "justified" the killings in the over three-decade old riots.

Rejecting the charge, Amarinder had said he did not take his demands seriously. "He (Phoolka) has been raising such things to get in the news for the last 31 years," Amarinder had said.

Phoolka alleged that Amarinder in an interview to a newspaper in May 2010 had said that Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath were wrongly implicated in anti-Sikh riot case.

"A leader like you, who became Chief Minister, MLA... Does not have the time to meet the victims of anti-sikh riots and is giving clean chit to Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath (in anti-Sikh riot cases) just to get the post of PPCC Chief," he said.

He also asked Amarinder to prove that a video of Rajiv Gandhi's speech delivered on November 19, 1984 at Boat Club on Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary was not authentic.

In the video grab which was shown to media here today, Gandhi was purportedly seen saying: "when the big tree falls, the earth shakes", an apparent reference to the anti-Sikh riots.

Phoolka, who unsuccessfully contested 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Ludhiana, asked Amarinder to prove that he (Phoolka) had given wrong statements and that Jagdish Tytler was wrongly implicated, within 15 days. "Otherwise, I will intensify my campaign against him," he said.