Sikh leaders want Manmohan-led Congress Government at Center to quit

Amritsar, April 24 (ANI): There have been strong reactions in Sikh circles to the final conclusion of arguments in the Delhi Court that was hearing cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

On Monday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had concluded that Congress leader Sajjan Kumar had incited mobs to attacks Sikhs during the riots in New Delhi.

Sikh leaders have called on the Manmohan-led UPA Government at the Centre to quit and take moral responsibility for their leaders secret involvement in the anti-Sikh riots.

Punjab Revenue and Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the Congress has no moral right to stay on in power at the Centre.

He said the Sikhs had all along maintained that the Congress leaders had taken the law into their own hands in 1984, and added that the Gandhi family was also responsible for the killing of hundreds of the Sikhs.

Majithia said the Congress and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi acted hand in glove with the killers of Sikhs, and added that Congress leaders and activists incited mobs to act violently and in a retributive manner.

"Our stand had been vindicated that the Congress was responsible for the killing and massacre of the Sikhs in the national capital and other cities of the country in 1984'', said Majithia.

BJP State Executive Member Rajinder Mohan Singh said in a statement that what they had been saying for the years has now come true.

"The CBI has finally admitted that violence against the Sikhs had the backing of Congress leaders,'' he stated, adding it was Congress leaders like Sajjan Kumar who incited the mobs against the Sikhs.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee's executive member, Rajinder Singh Mehta, said anti-Sikh riot victims were yet to get justice 28 years after the violent event.

"It was always clear that it was the Congress leaders who were responsible for the massacre of the Sikhs.The investigating agencies were also under pressure not to work against influential persons who were made ministers in the government by successive Congress governments in Delhi," claimed Mehta.

Meanwhile, American Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee coordinator Dr. Pritpal Singh said the CBI already had taken nearly three decades to submit its final report in the court, and felt that now the case should be fast tracked to punish the guilty.

The CBI had told the court of Additional Sessions Judge J R Aryan that Delhi Police had acted in a pre-planned manner during the riots, and kept its "eyes closed" to the violence.

About 150 riot-related complaints were made, but only five cases were registered.

Sajjan Kumar and five others are accused of inciting mobs in the Delhi Canttonment area of the city where six Sikhs were killed in riots that broke out after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)