CHANDIGARH: As the Punjab state elections close in, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots issue has found its way into the light with all parties in the run playing up. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, which is aggressively campaigning for a breakthrough in the region sat on a one-day hunger strike in Mohali last week in support of families affected by the riots.
They blamed the Congress and the National Democratic Alliance government for trying to save the key accused of the riots. Meanwhile, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal brought the issue up on Statehood day, blaming the Congress of being "anti-Punjabi". The Congress, on the other hand, slammed AAP and the Akali Dal for raking up the riots at the time of elections to get cheap political mileage by exploiting Sikh sentiments.
AAP has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the re-opening of all cases related to the 1984 riots. AAP's Kanwar Sandhu said all the closed cases pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots should be re-opened and re-investigated and Kejriwal given the right to have them investigated. "We assure the nation that all cases would be taken to their logical conclusion within six months, if the Delhi government is allowed to re-open and re-investigate the cases of anti-Sikh riots," Sandhu said. He added that even thought the Modi government had constituted a SIT in 2015 to probe the cases, no steps were taken to deliver justice to the victims.
Targeting the opposition parties, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh said that the NDA government had failed to do anything in the matter despite being in power. "The Akalis and the AAP are trying to get cheap political mileage by linking me to the riots. I owe no explanation to anyone, much less the Akalis, who never raised the issue even once despite being in power, till it was election time in the State. The AAP has also chose election time to raise the issue, with the clear intent of making political gains. The AAP has now been in power in Delhi for two years. But it did not even think of the issue till this moment," he said.
