The right hand of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is not acting in sync with the left. After the party patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ruled out the need for setting up a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to probe into 1984 anti-Sikh riots, his deputy son Sukhbir Badal, who is the SAD president, has welcomed the move.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, after the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the issue sparked a row, demanded to set up SIT to probe November 1984 anti-Sikh riots . On Thursday, he said that the proposal for the same would be taken up in the next Cabinet meeting.
Even as Sukhbir welcomed Kejriwal’s proposal on the behalf of his party and the SAD-BJP Government in Punjab, he has asked the Aam Aadmi party leader to “establish his credibility on probing the Congress-engineered and Government-sponsored massacre by dissociating himself from the party widely held guilty of the heinous crime”.
“The massacre took place in Delhi where Kejriwal is now the Chief Minister. For an SIT to function in an atmosphere completely free of political interference, Delhi must not have Government supported by Congress. Otherwise, the whole purpose of the probe will be lost,” said Sukhbir. He added that even for an SIT formed by the Court to succeed, “it will have to depend on inputs from the Government machinery in Delhi. If that machinery is a puppet of the Congress, how can it be expected to cooperate with the court in conducting an honest probe against the Congress goonsIJ” Asking Kejriwal to “end contradiction of being friends with criminals and sympathising with their victims at the same time”, Sukhbir said: “We only want the exercise to look and be genuine. Otherwise, even the victims may not have the confidence to come forward and depose against the criminals as they would still be controlling the reigns of Government in Delhi.”
The SAD chief asked Kejriwal to prove the sincerity of his demand for the formation of SIT “by refusing to accept support from the guilty Congress” else his demand would appear to be a mere political stunt.
