Rahul Gandhi’s Sangrur rally: Ravi Shankar Prasad asks him to apologise for 1984 riots

Chandigarh. As Rahul Gandhi opened the Congress campaign for Punjab on Wednesday, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad faced families of 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims in Chandigarh and demanded to know where the Congress leader stands on his father’s words after the killing of Sikhs.

“What is your stand on your father’s statement? Why have you or your family never tendered a sincere apology to the nation?” asked Prasad, a senior advocate and Patna Sahib MP.

He was delivering the keynote address at the BJP’s day-long conclave, ‘Zakhm 84 De’, at Hotel Parkview, Sector 24.

“Two deep blots stain Punjab’s soul today – ’84 ke zakhm’ (the wounds of 1984) and ‘chitte di peeda’ (the agony of drug addiction). These wounds cannot heal without uncompromised justice,” he said.

Prasad recalled Rajiv Gandhi’s remark of November 19, 1984 – “When a big tree falls, the earth shakes” – and said it was an attempt to justify the butchery of thousands of innocent Sikhs. He said that as I&B Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he had the video of that speech, which had gone missing from public archives, put back in the public domain.

He also questioned the Congress’s timing. “On November 1, Congress staged a rally in Delhi, and today they hold a political event here. Why rub salt into these raw wounds?” he said.

Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Hisaab Maango’ rally in Sangrur marked the launch of the Congress campaign for the 2027 Assembly polls, in what is seen as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s home turf. The Delhi event Prasad referred to was the INDIA bloc’s November 1 rally at Ramlila Maidan against alleged irregularities in the working of the Election Commission. The BJP had objected to that date earlier.

Prasad asked why the Congress had shielded leaders such as Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath for four decades. He summed up the party’s approach in three words: “latkana, bhatkana, jhatkana” (delay, distract and dismiss).

He said the Congress set up one commission after another but never wanted justice. “Even Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure could not deliver convictions against them,” he said.

“Congress cared nothing about 3,500 innocent dead; they only moved heaven and earth to shield three or four key leaders. It was only when the Narendra Modi government stepped in, formed the SIT, and Justice Dhingra’s recommendations were enforced that convictions like Sajjan Kumar’s were secured,” Prasad said. He credited senior advocate HS Phoolka for his long fight in court.

Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, convicted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases, died in August this year while serving a life sentence.

The day began with an Ardas for the peace of those killed and for justice to be done. Victim families and survivors sat in the hall as Prasad, Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon and BJP national general secretary and Punjab in-charge Dr Satish Poonia opened a photo exhibition on November 1984.

The black-and-white pictures showed homes on fire in Trilokpuri, burnt-out shops in Connaught Place, uprooted families holding on to whatever they could save, and Sikhs being pulled off buses. Many in the hall stood silently before the frames.

Paying tribute to the families present, Dhillon said Rajiv Gandhi’s cold justification still sends a shiver down the spine 42 years later.

“The community that forgets its past forgets its future. We have neither forgotten 1984 nor will we allow it to be forgotten. While Rahul Gandhi holds rallies in Sangrur hypocritically preaching ‘insaaf’, the people of Punjab know that justice can never come from the very hands that inflicted these wounds,” Dhillon said.

“The BJP will not rest until the last perpetrator is brought to book,” he added.

BJP national spokesperson RP Singh, who moderated the session, recalled the long legal battle that broke the culture of impunity. He said the party would stand with the victims until there is full accountability.