Anti-Sikh riots crusader & former AAP member Harvinder Singh Phoolka joins BJP

New Delhi: Anti-Sikh Riots crusader and lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka on Wednesday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of union minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and party National General Secretary Tarun Chugh.

Phoolka said that he had been associated with the BJP for years. “I have been fighting for the 1984 riots victims for the last four decades, and I have been supported by the BJP since then. I have fought my fight together with them. I have also done a lot of legal work for the BJP. I was with the AAP for three years from 2014-2017. But my close association has been with the BJP since the beginning,” Phoolka said.

Phoolka, who joined the AAP in 2014, was the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly in 2017 in Punjab. He left the party in 2018 to protest against the then Congress government’s failure to take action against those named by the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission. At the same time, he was barred by the Delhi High Court from practicing as he held a constitutional post.

The Sikh riots crusader also had a brief stint in the Akali Dal in between. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2019. Between 2018 and 2024, he was away from active politics.

Phoolka told reporters that the situation in Punjab is “really bad”.

“Extortion calls are being made, there is a law and order situation there, the drug menace is going to turn the land of Punjab barren in 13-14 years. But the Govt is least bothered. So, I am returning to politics for Punjab. There was no better party than BJP to return to,” he said.

He also spoke of how he and his pregnant wife escaped the mobs in 1984 during the riots, and the legal crusade he pursued on behalf of the victims over the years. “The BJP has always helped me in my fight,” he said. Punjab heads to the assembly polls in a year’s time in March 2027.