Seeking justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Opposition leaders on Wednesday met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention for a Supreme Court-monitored SIT probe into the “Sikh genocide.”
Top leaders of the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal, along with those of Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, TDP, JMM, INlD, BJD and JD-U handed over a memorandum to the President asking him to direct the Centre to accept their demands for addressing the grievances of the Sikh community.
The leaders including lK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, who came together at the initiative of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, demanded an independent and impartial probe through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
The leaders also demanded monitoring of the investigation by the Supreme Court and a probe into the role of police officers in the riots, who they alleged, did not register FIRs after the violence and did not prosecute the guilty properly, leading to their acquittal.
“We urged the President that today the whole nation is looking at him, because we feel the present Government will not give us justice. 29 years ago, when this massacre of thousands of people took place in Delhi, innocent children, women and old people were murdered. However, not a single powerful person has been put behind bars since then,” Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal told reporters after meeting the President.
The delegation of leaders demanded that an appeal be filed by the State immediately against the acquittal of Sajjan Kumar and the Government must takes steps to ensure day-to-day hearing and disposal of the appeal within three months.
The leaders demanded that the challan in the 1987 FIR registered against Sajjan Kumar in a riot case in Nangloi Police Station be filed immediately and a probe against another Congress leader Jagdish Tytler be done expeditiously and the challan presented against him, as the court has already rejected a cancellation report against him.
The leaders who met the President included Maneka Gandhi (BJP), D Mehtab (BJD), Ananth Geete and Bhawna Gawli (both Shiv Sena), Shailender Kumar and Neeraj Shekhar (both SP), S Kumar (JMM), Namo Nageshwar Rao (TDP), Chaudhary Ranveer (INlD), Vishwamohan Kumar, Kaushalendra Kumar and V Mahato (all JD-U), all Akali and BJP MPs from Punjab, MlAs and Ministers besides some other leaders of various parties.
Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal said leaders and representatives of nearly all political parties of this country met the President seeking justice for the victims of the 1984 riots in which thousands of Sikhs were killed in the aftermath of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination.
"We requested the President that it is not a matter of just one community or of Punjab or of any one single political party. It is an issue which involves the entire nation," he said.
The Opposition leaders' meeting came against the backdrop of the public outcry over the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 riots case. Sikhs are protesting against his acquittal and demanding reopening of the case against him.