Congress runs into Sikh storm over tickets to ’84 riots accused

The Delhi Congress might have only considered the winnability factor while deciding to field former member of Parliament Jagdish Tytler from the Northeast Delhi parliamentary seat but this has not gone down well with the members of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in the Capital.

The Delhi Congress might have only considered the winnability factor while deciding to field former member of Parliament Jagdish Tytler from the Northeast Delhi parliamentary seat but this has not gone down well with the members of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) in the Capital.

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The SGPC on Tuesday threatened that five of its members would immolate themselves outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s house if Tytler were given a clean chit by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The case will come up in the CBI court on Thursday (April 2). SGPC member Kuldeep Singh Bhogal said, “Five of our members, including me, have decided to immolate ourselves at 11.30 am on April 3, if Tytler is given a clean chit.”

He added, “It has been 25 years now and Sikhs have not got any justice. This, despite the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in September 2005 apologised to the Sikh community for the 1984 riots. And now the Congress has decided to field two of the main accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots — Tytler and Sajjan Kumar — from Northeast and South Delhi constituencies respectively. Why is the Congress succumbing to pressure?”