Chandigarh
The Shiromani Akali Dal on Saturday hit out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying by disagreeing with the view his party was involved in the “genocide”, he had “rubbed the salt into the wounds” of the Sikh community.

Hitting out at the Congress president, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal alleged that Gandhi was trying to protect those Congress leaders who were involved in the “genocide”.

“Rahul Gandhi has rubbed salt into the wounds of Sikh ‘quom’ by saying that the Congress was not involved in 1984 anti-Sikh riots,” Badal told reporters here today, adding, “It shows the thinking of Gandhi towards Sikh community.”

Describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots a “very painful tragedy”, Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the UK, said, “I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy.”

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in 1984 following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards when the Congress government was in power at the Centre.

“I want to ask Rahul if Congress leaders were not involved in anti-Sikh riots, then why it withdrew tickets given to Congress leaders HKL Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar.