MP elections: BJP minister says 1984 anti-Sikh riots a ‘blot on Kamal Nath’s robe’, Congress responds

Madhya Pradesh Minister Vishvas Sarang on Sunday attacked senior Congress leader Kamal Nath over the anti-Sikh riots post the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. The Congress said the allegation was politically motivated and baseless and part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “politics of religion, lies and deceit” ahead of polls.

Nath, who was chief minister of MP from December 2018 to March 2020 and is currently state unit chief of the Congress, is expected to lead his party in the Assembly polls likely to be held at the end of the year. “Kamal Nath carries a big blot on his robe. Will he lead the party with it in the (Assembly) elections? He should come in the midst of people and say whether he was involved in the riots,” Sarang, who is Medical Education minister in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet, told reporters.

“The Congress has always played divisive politics. I appeal to the Congress leadership to remove those accused of involvement in the anti-Sikh riots. Or else it will be clear Congress wants to fight polls under the leadership of a man accused of killing Sikhs,” Sarang alleged. The entire case was probed by Nanavati Commission in 2000 after which it went to Central Bureau of Investigation, but, unfortunately, the Congress (UPA) government came to power (at the Centre) in 2004 and the matter was hushed up and action was not initiated against the guilty, Sarang alleged. Addressing a press conference, BJP minister Sarang said after 2014, the investigating agency probed the matter and it resulted in Congress leader Sajjan Kumar being sentenced to life imprisonment.

On Saturday, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet before a special court in Delhi against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the Pul Bangash case of killing three persons and torching of a gurdwara there during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. “Tytler has been chargesheeted and he will find himself in jail soon. The third name is Kamal Nath. The time will come for sure when the guilty will face action. Investigating agencies are doing their job,” Sarang claimed.

Hitting back, Sachpreet Singh, state president of Madhya Pradesh Congress Qaumi Ekta Cell and Sikh Youth Association of Indore unit chief, in a press release, said the BJP starts playing the politics of religion, lies and deceit whenever elections are round the corner.

“The BJP misleads Sikhs by accusing Kamal Nath of anti-Sikh riots. The reality is that till date Kamal Nath’s name has not been mentioned in any FIR or chargesheet in any of the riots. It has become the character of the BJP to play with the emotions of the Sikh community by frightening them,” Singh claimed. Sikhs across the country were targeted and killed and their properties looted after two bodyguards from the community shot dead Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.