CHANDIGARH, Punjab – July 9 (IANS) Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal Monday opposed the decision of the UPA government to depute controversial Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, whose name had figured in the 1984 anti-Sikh Pogroms in Delhi, to lead the country’s delegation to the London Olympics.
The Akali Dal urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who himself is a Sikh, to immediately intervene and reverse the decision without any delay.
Akali Dal secretary and spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said that inclusion of a person accused of grave human rights violation was an insult to humanity and would send a wrong signal worldwide.
“The only explanation for his selection…can be that the Congress party was with Tytler, is with Tytler and will remain with Tytler, whatever the allegations against him may stand,” Cheema said here.
Tytler was one of the main Congress leaders who were accused of instigating mobs in Delhi to attack Sikhs in the wake of the killing of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards Oct 1984. The rioting early November led to the killing of hundreds of Sikh men, women and children.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Avtar Singh Makkar has also opposed the selection of Tytler as a member of the London Olympics delegation.
Cheema said that it was surprising that a man who led violent mobs on the streets of Delhi to massacre innocent Sikh children, women and men has been being chosen for such a honour at the time of Olympic games.
“One fails to understand that why a person who had been found to be guilty of such heinous crime and who had been indicted by the Nanavati Commission has been chosen for such a great assignment. It shows the insensitivity of the Congress led United Progressive Alliance government for the feelings of right thinking countrymen in general and Sikh community in particular,” Cheema said.
“This action is totally unjustified and highly provocative and amounts to rubbing salt on the wounds of Sikh community. If the name of Tytler is not taken out it will denigrate the name of the nation at international level,” he added.
Pointing out that the move would cause resentment among hundreds of affected Sikh families who suffered in the riots, Cheema said that someone at the top in the Congress party was bent to honour Tytler for what role he had played in the 1984 riots.
Editor’s Note: It is the view of Sikh24’s editors that the attacks against innocent Sikhs in November 1984 were pogroms and not riots.
