The Delhi Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution condemning the “genocide” of Sikhs in the national Capital in November 1984 and asking the Central Government to initiate action against Jagdish Tytler in the wake of fresh evidence that he had allegedly tried to influence a prime witness of the “genocide”.
Responding to a discussion over the resolution moved by AAP MlA from Rajouri Garden Jarnail Singh, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed the Central Government for not being proactive in probing the issue and accused it of setting up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to stall the probe by his Government.
“For 30 years Sikh community had been demanding a SIT probe into the 1984 massacre and we had formed it in our 49-day Government. Unfortunately, our Government couldn’t last. And few days before our Government was formed again in Delhi, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs constituted an SIT, perhaps to stop our Government from forming one. We want to cooperate fully with the Centre but some concrete steps should be initiated by it, which doesn’t seem to be happening,” Kejriwal said, adding that the SIT was supposed to file its report within six months but there has been no activity ever since it was constituted.
Moving the resolution, Jarnail Singh made an emotional speech on the issue and said that his intention is to apprise the House of the pain that the Sikh community all over the world still goes through. “While a lot of Sikhs died in 1984, the bigger tragedy is the death of the hope that the victims of those riots will ever get justice. It was not a riot, but a Government-sponsored massacre. The bigger issue is not the killings or the denial of justice; but it is that our community was made to feel like second-class citizens of this nation,” said Singh.
Supporting the resolution, Opposition leader Vijender Gupta said that his party will rise above politics and walk shoulder to shoulder with Sikhs in giving them justice.
Kejriwal also said, “There have been so many riots in our nation. These riots don’t just happen. They are made to happen by those who have some vested interests. Had the culprits of 1984 riots been harshly punished for what they did, no one would have dared to cause riots in 2002.”
The House unanimously adopted the resolution through a voice vote. “This House requests the Central Government to take immediate cognizance of the recent revelations made against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in affidavits of the CBI by one Abhishek Verma that Tytler had influenced witnesses and made payments through Hawala, and order registration of a criminal case against him under relevant Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This House is of the strong opinion that urgent efforts must be made to ensure all those involved in this ‘genocide’ must be given exemplary punishment,” the resolution read.
It further added that all the compensation announced for the next kin of the riots victims must be immediately disbursed.