Manmohan’s remark on 1984 riots sparks debate
The Centre’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday reacted sharply to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remark that the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 could have been avoided if the then home minister PV Narasimha Rao had paid heed to Inder Kumar Gujral’s advice of calling in the army, and put the blame for the riots on Rajiv Gandhi. The riots followed the assassination of the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Rajiv Gandhi, her son, succeeded her as the prime minister that very night.
“...when the sad event of 1984 took place, Gujral ji on that very sad evening went to the then home minister Shri [PV] Narasimha Rao and told him the situation is so grave that it is necessary for the government to call the army [in] at the earliest. If that advice had been heeded, perhaps the massacre that took place in 1984 could have been avoided,” Singh, a former PM and a senior Congress leader, said on Wednesday at a function to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Gujral, one of his predecessors.
The BJP criticised Singh’s remark . Union minister Prakash Javadekar blamed Rajiv Gandhi for the riots, saying the prime minister has the right to order army deployment in such a situation. “In a way, Rajiv Gandhi supported the massacre with his subsequent comments that the earth shakes when a big tree falls,” Javadekar told reporters about the riots following the assassination of Gandhi.
Javadekar also questioned why, in 1991, Singh went on to become a finance minister in a Cabinet headed by Rao if he had such adverse feelings about the leader.
NV Subash, a BJP leader and the grandson of Rao, too, condemned Singh’s statement. “As a family member, I am feeling saddened by this statement by Dr. Manmohan Singh; it is unacceptable,” he told news agency, ANI.
But Gujral’s son, Naresh Gujral, a parliamentarian from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) — a political ally of the BJP, complimented Singh for being “truthful”. “I admire and compliment Manmohan Singh for being truthful and calling a spade a spade,” he told news agency, PTI.
SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said Singh’s statement was a “shocking attempt to shift blame from Rajiv Gandhi and the Nehru-Gandhi family” to Rao.“The claim is shocking because it comes from Manmohan Singh whom we have always genuinely respected. It is inappropriate and indecorous as it involves two former PMs, Narasimha Rao and IK Gujral, neither of whom is alive to respond to this claim,” he said in a statement. “It is intriguing why Manmohan kept quiet when Rao and Gujral were around to confirm or deny this claim,” he said.
Union minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal said in Madhya PRadesh, “The 1984 massacre of Sikhs is a blot in the history of mother India and for this Rajiv Gandhi was responsible. He held back the Army. And for this, the Gandhi family should apologise.”
Congress leader, KTS Tulsi, told news agency ANI, “I think the truth is that the entire katleaam [bloodshed] would have been avoided if the army had been deployed, and IK Gujral had advised the then Prime Minister into calling the army but that was not done.”
