The Delhi Assembly on Friday demanded that Bharat Ratna awarded to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi be withdrawn over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which it termed as “genocide”. The Assembly also passed a resolution to ‘impress upon’ the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take ‘all important and necessary steps’ to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws.
Moving the resolution Tilak Nagar Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Jarnail Singh sought to direct the Delhi Government to ‘strongly convey’ in writing to the MHA that justice has still eluded the families of the slain Sikhs who were the victims of the ‘worst genocide in the history of India’s national Capital.’ The resolution was later passed by a voice vote in the House.
Reacting to a member’s comment about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi be divested of the highest civilian award of the country Bharat Ratna, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s spokesman and legislature from Greater Kailash assembly seat, Saurabh Bhardwaj tweeted , “Lines about late Rajiv Gandhi were not part of resolution placed before House and distributed to the members. One MLA in his handwriting proposed an addition/amendment about late Rajiv Gandhi. Amendments cannot be passed in this manner”.
The very mention of late Rajiv Gandhi evoked sharp reactions from the Congress. Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken tweeted “Sh. Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed his life for the country.True colours of AAP have come out in the open! I have always believed that AAP is the B team of BJP! AAP fielded candidates in Goa, Punjab,MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh just to cut the votes of Congress and help the BJP”
The House directed the government to impress upon the MHA that it should take all important and necessary steps to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws, as recommended by the Delhi High Court in its recent landmark judgment sentencing Sajjan Kumar and other convicts to life imprisonment.
A former Congress MP, Sajjan Kumar has quit the party following his conviction in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party and the government following his mother’s demise, was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, in 1991.