Amarinder Singh defends Tytler, lands in soup
Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh has scored a self-goal by giving a clean chit to his party colleague Jagdish Tytler who has been accused of inciting murderous mobs during the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. The violence claimed more than 3,000 lives in Delhi alone and remains an unhealed wound in the national psyche. For a candidate who is contesting from the lok Sabha seat of Amritsar in Punjab, to bring up the issue in the midst of a tumultuous election campaign, and that too in a manner hurtful to the riot victims and offensive to the people he seeks to represent, is more than just political hara-kiri. It shows a callous disregard for public sensitivity and exposes Capt Singh as one who has no qualms in placing his narrow personal interests above all else. On Sunday, Capt Singh told a news channel that when violence erupted in Delhi in November 1984, he visited many gurudwaras in the city and reached out to the Sikhs who had taken shelter there from blood-thirsty mobs. But none of the victims had pointed fingers at Mr Tytler. He added that they had named other Congress leaders such as Mr Sajjan Kumar, HKl Bhagat and lalit Maken — but not Mr Tytler. The accuracy of Capt Singh's statement is, of course, highly questionable, but what is without a doubt is that this is yet another disgraceful effort by the Congress to whitewash Mr Tytler's tainted reputation.
Though Mr Tytler is yet to be convicted by a court of law, allegations about his role in the 1984 carnage have doggedly pursued him for three decades now. And through all of this, there is enough proof to suggest that the Congress repeatedly sought to protect him from the long hand of the law. let's start from the beginning. Despite material pointing to Mr Tytler's role in 1984, he was appointed a Union Minister in Rajiv Gandhi's Government in 1985. In 1987, the Jain-Banerjee Commission recommended that cases be registered both against Mr Tytler and Mr Kumar, but the committee itself was annulled. Four other independent probe panels — the Potti-Rosha Committee, the Jain-Aggarwal committee, the Narula Committee and the Nanavati Commission — that investigated the massacre, between 1990 and 2000, came to the same conclusion. Yet no serious action was taken against Mr Tytler.
It was only in 2005, after Parliament accepted the recommendations of the Nanavati Commission, that Mr Tytler resigned from the UPA Government. Astonishingly, despite the fact that almost everybody else looking at the case could see Mr Tytler's role, the Central Bureau of Investigation — notorious for being the Government’s handmaiden — could never find enough evidence against him. In 2007, the apex investigation agency sought to close the case against Mr Tytler but was forced by the courts to re-investigate. The CBI again gave Mr Tytler a clean chit and filed a closure report in 2009. But this too was contested by the opposing parties. Finally,last year, a Sessions Court ordered the probe agency to re-open the case yet again. Mr Tytler appealed to the higher courts but his plea was rejected. It may still be a while before Mr Tytler is held accountable for his alleged crimes, but Congress leaders like Capt Singh will do well to meanwhile let the law takes its course and not offer their biased opinions.