Members of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) have taken strong exception to the remarks of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in which he said his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv Gandhi were killed by communal forces.
DSGMC president Manjit Singh G.K., while speaking at a press conference on Thursday, said if Mr. Gandhi asserted his grandmother and father were killed by communal forces then he should also look into who killed more than 5,000 Sikhs all over the country in November 1984.
At a political rally at Churu in Rajasthan on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi had said that bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh had killed his grandmother.
“The comments by Rahul Gandhi has angered Sikhs because in his speech he has not touched the issue of the anti-Sikh carnage of 1984, and he should seek forgiveness for that,” said Mr. Singh.
“Everyone in the country knows what led to the killing of Indira Gandhi. If Mr. Gandhi has forgotten, I would remind him that at the behest of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Army carried out Operation Bluestar in the same year that razed Shri Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs and also severely damaged other shrines in the sanctum sanctorum of Shri Darbar Sahib in Amritsar. In the operation, a large number of innocent pilgrims were also killed,” recalled Mr. Singh.
“The wounds caused due to Operation Bluestar and the anti-Sikh carnage are still raw and alive in the hearts of Sikhs living all over the world,” he added.
The DSGMC president, who also heads the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) in Delhi, said 29 years after the anti-Sikh carnage of 1984, the Congress party-led UPA Government is shielding its leaders who have been found guilty by different commissions of enquiry for leading rioters who killed innocent Sikhs.
“What right does Mr. Gandhi have to say that communal forces killed his grandmother and father when killers of thousands of innocent Sikhs are protected by him and roam freely in public domain,” said Mr. Singh.
DSGMC general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who also addressed media persons, said Rahul Gandhi was trying to rake an emotional issue and arouse passion in view of the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. “Mr. Gandhi is trying to raise fake sentiments in the hope that it would help the Congress in the upcoming elections.”
