Congress not connected with 1984 riots: Amarinder

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday reiterated that the Congress was not connected with the 1984 riots and any involvement of a few Congress leaders could have been only at an individual level.

Replying strongly to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia’s statement in the Vidhan Sabha on the issue, he said the former minister must have been in a pram when the riots took place and had no knowledge about the issue at all.

Majithia raised the issue of Rahul Gandhi’s recent statement on the 1984 riots.

Amarinder later told reporters that he had personally visited individual camps immediately after the incident and met people there.

“People in the camps had named some individual Congress leaders, namely H K L Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Arjan Das and Dharamdas Shastri, which he had subsequently revealed to the public”, he said adding that he has been naming these people for almost 34 years.

On his visit to the affected areas and the camps in the aftermath of the riots, Amarinder said the situation had been bad, and bodies of victims could be seen rotting on the roads.

The chief minister said there was no need to expunge the names as these members had been in public debate for the past 34 years and had already been exposed in the public eye.