Capt Amarinder defends clean chit to Rajeev, Rahul on ’84

CHANDIGARH: Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh today lashed out at the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for hiding behind the second rung leaders of his party saying, he (Badal) should better come out publicly if he has any guts left in him. “The noose around your neck is tightening day by day, no matter what diversionary tactics you try to use, it is not going to loosen”, he told Badal. Capt Amarinder reiterated and defended the clean chit to late Rajeev Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi about 1984 anti-Sikh riots. “Yes, I have given clean chit to Rajeev and Rahul as none of them had any role in the riots”, he asserted and challenged the Akalis to prove him wrong with facts and not fiction. The former Chief Minister pointed out, when Ms Indira Gandhi was assassinated, Rajeev was in West Bengal. After he returned and took oath as the Prime Minister, the first thing he did was to move around Delhi and restore peace and order, he said, pointing out, even none of the victims have ever levelled such allegations against Rajeev or Rahul, who was only 14 at that time, which the Akalis, particularly the Badals are levelling. He said, he had already named five persons who, he was told during his visit to the riot victim camps, were involved in the riots. He said, they included HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Dharam Dass Shastri, Arjan Dass and Lalit Maken. He asked Badal to better pursue with Prime Minister Modi to expedite trial as it was courts which had delayed the matter. He told Badal to also ensure that about 120 RSS activists named in the FIRs for anti-Sikh riots are also brought to justice.
Asserting that Badal was now raking up the issue Capt Amarinder remarked, “having proved to be an absolute administrative and political failure, Badal is now using the name of his second and third rung leaders to try to divert the public attention and mass fury against him”. He said, “all these pressnotes issued in the names of people like Dhindsa, Chandumajra, Cheema and Grewal were being released from the CM house and most probably without their (the leaders’) knowledge and consent”.