The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Saturday flayed the New Delhi Municipal Committee (NDMC) for serving a notice on the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) over the proposed construction of the '1984 Sikh genocide memorial' at Gurdwara Rakabganj in the national capital and terming the proposed memorial an "illegal structure".
In a statement issued here, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar claimed that no one but the Congress was behind the notice issued by the NDMC. The foundation stone of the memorial would be laid on November 12.
"The Congress first indulged in the brutal murder of Sikhs in the national capital and now it does not even want us to construct a memorial in their honour. This is yet another move by the Congress to throttle the voice of the Sikhs," said Makkar.
Pointing to the anti-Sikh riots in the wake of assasination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, Makkar said that no one but the Congress was to blame for the mayhem of November 1984 in the national capital. Till date, not a single Congress leader had been punished for the riots, he added.
Makkar said that the issuance of a notice to the DSGMC once again had brought out the "anti-Sikh face of the Congress". The party came out to defend people like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and as if this was not enough, the Congress now did not want the Sikhs to build a memorial to their kith and kin, he added.
{{/usCountry}}Makkar said that the issuance of a notice to the DSGMC once again had brought out the "anti-Sikh face of the Congress". The party came out to defend people like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and as if this was not enough, the Congress now did not want the Sikhs to build a memorial to their kith and kin, he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Perhaps the Congress is scared that the memorial will remind future generation of its true face," added Makkar.
Damdami Taksal head Harnam Singh Dhumma too flayed the NDMC move and said that this once again proved that "Sikhs were second-grade citizen in their own country."