1984 anti-Sikh riots: Amarinder Singh blames Sajjan, 3 other Cong leaders

Chandigarh: The Congress was not connected with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots but a few party leaders could have been involved at an individual level, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said in the state Assembly on Monday.

The Punjab chief minister named four Congress leaders — H.K.L Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Arjan Das and Dharamdas Shastri — whose names he had heard at camps after the riots.

“The Congress, as a party, was never involved in the riots,” Amarinder Singh said in the state Assembly after the matter was raised by Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal and his partymen.

The chief minister said that it was “individuals”, and not the Congress, who were involved in the riots, a stand similar to the one taken by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in London where he said that the Congress, as a party, was never involved in the carnage.

The chief minister said he had visited camps and some gurdwaras in Delhi after the riots broke out. “People in the camps named some individual Congress leaders. I heard names of H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Arjan Das and Dharamdas Shastri, which I have over the years revealed to the public,” he said.

“I have been naming these people for the past almost 34 years,” Amarinder Singh said, while clarifying that he had named the people who were mentioned to him, and not out of any personal knowledge.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in 1984 following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards when the Congress government was in power at the Centre.

Mr Badal later told reporters that the chief minister should present himself as a key witness before the Supreme Court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case and get all the accused convicted.

He also hit out Amarinder Singh for not naming his party colleague Jagdish Tytler, the prime accused in the Sikh riots case, along with the other four leaders allegedly involved in riots.

“According to the Punjab chief minister, these people (H.K.L. Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Dharamdas Shastri, Arjun Das) have caused the riots. But, interestingly, he did not take Tytler’s name as he has a soft corner for him,” said Mr Badal.

“Captain sahab said that all the people he named caused riots in their individual capacity not as Congress leaders. I would like to ask, what is this individual capacity?” asked Mr Badal.