Congress and no one else is responsible for anti-Sikh riots: BJP MP

BJP MP Shiv Pratap Shukla said the Congress was solely responsible for anti-Sikh riots of 1984 that followed the killing of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Rajiv Gandhi-led government did not do much to contain the situation, he alleged.

New Delhi: Holding the Congress responsible for anti-Sikh riots of 1984, BJP MP Shiv Pratap Shukla on Thursday said the Congress-led government did not do much to contain the situation.

"The Congress supported the riots," he told ETV Bharat, while reacting to comments made by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, wherein he said that "when the sad event of 1984 took place, Gujral ji that very evening went to the then home minister Narsimha Rao and told him that the situation is so grim that it is necessary for the government to call the Army at the earliest. If that advice was heeded, the massacre that took place in 1984 could perhaps have been avoided".

The BJP leader said that Rajiv Gandhi, as prime minister, had supported the killings saying that "whenever a big tree falls, the earth shakes". These were the comments reportedly made by Rajiv Gandhi after his mother and then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards at her official residence on 31st October 1984."It makes the intention clear," the BJP leader said.

On being asked if the comment on the issue was made keeping in mind the upcoming assembly elections of Delhi, the BJP Rajya Sabha MP said the people would not forgive them.

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