Holding the Congress party and the UPA Government led by it responsible for “shielding the guilty'' of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, the Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday announced that its leaders, including party MPs, would march to the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 3 and hand him a memorandum demanding strict punishment to those who were involved in the brutal violence.
Addressing a press conference, leaders of the SAD including Delhi unit president Manjit Singh G.K., national general secretary Avtar Singh Hit, national vice-president Onkar Sigh Thapar, SGPC member and secretary general Kuldip Singh Bhogal, and president of its youth wing and Municipal Councillor Manjinder Singh Sirsa, said the march would begin at 10-30 a.m. from the car parking of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.
The party leaders said they were “in agreement with the movement of remembering the 1984-Sikh carnage martyrs''.
ADVERTISEMENT
Noting that ``the aggrieved persons could not get justice even after the lapse of 27 years,'' they also urged people to show solidarity with the victims by keeping the lights of their residences switched off for half an hour from 8 p.m. on Thursday.
The SAD would also urge the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib to include the ``martyrs'' of 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in the `` ardas ''.
They said as per the reports of human rights groups about 4,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and about 7,000 Sikhs were killed in other parts of India in the violence following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
ADVERTISEMENT
“About 2,000 families lost their earning members and only women and children survived. These children have gone through a huge trauma which affected them psychologically. They could not study and do well in their life. Now when their next generation is in schools, most of them cannot even afford to pay the fees,'' said Mr. Manjit Singh.
The Akali leaders said while on the one hand these families were leading a miserable life, on the other despite the killing of 2,733 Sikhs in Delhi (as per official figures), not a single person has been convicted.
The SAD leaders said rather than punishing the culprits the UPA Government was “shielding the guilty by awarding them higher political posts''.