Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday clarified that he never gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler for his “involvement” in the anti-Sikh riots.
"It is for the investigating agencies and courts to probe and decide,” he said. Capt Singh was interacting with Punjabi NRIs who had gathered at Hotel Hilton in New York on Saturday night. Replying to another question, Capt Singh said he had never said that the Sikhs should forget what happened in Delhi in 1984. "How can I ask anyone to forget 1984 when I myself resigned from the Parliament and my party to protest what happened at that time?”
“Sikhs can never forget what happened in 1984 and it will always remain etched in our memory,” he asserted, while pointing out, “We have suffered so many massacres in the past and they are all part of our history and so is 1984.”
At the same time, Capt Singh added that it does not serve any purpose to rake up the issue during every election. Referring to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, he asked, "Why does Badal recall 1984 only during the election days and never before or after that?”
The senior Congress leader supported the demand of several NRIs that there should be no blacklist and nobody should be barred from visiting the country of his roots. The former Chief Minister said the Akalis had "brutally victimised" and persecuted the NRIs by slapping false cases on them so that they are not able to visit Punjab.
"We will review all the cases pending against NRIs and ensure that no person facing investigation is arrested," he said.
