Manmohan links Rao to anti-Sikh riots, sparks row

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks that the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 could have been averted had the then Home Minister P V Narasimha Rao called in the army to intervene and stop the violence triggered a row.

BJP leader N V Subash, the grandson of late Narasimha Rao, said Singh's statement was “unacceptable” and that he was saddened by the remarks.

“Can any home minister take the independent decision without cabinet approval? If Army had been called, it would've been a disaster,” Subash said.

BJP slammed Singh for dragging late Narasimha Rao into the 1984 riots issue and sought to put the blame for the riots on the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

“In a way, Rajiv Gandhi supported the massacre with his subsequent comments that the earth shakes when a big tree falls,” senior BJP leader and I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.

He also wondered why Singh took up Rao's offer to become the Finance Minister in 1991 if he was “so bad”.

Speaking at an event on Wednesday to celebrate the birth centenary of former prime minister late I K Gujral, Singh had said that Gujral had told Rao to bring in the Army to contain the raging anti-Sikh violence after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

“When the sad event of 1984 took place, Gujral-ji on that very sad evening, he went to then Home Minister PV Narasimha Rao and said to him that the situation is so grave that it is necessary for the government to call in the Army at the earliest. If that advice had been heeded, perhaps the massacre that took place in 1984 could have been avoided,” Singh said.

Noted lawyer H S Phoolka, who fought the case of anti-Sikh riots victims in court, lauded Singh for “such a bold admission and not caring for consequences”.

Phoolka took to Twitter to claim that then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi “didn't agree to call the Army”.

Gujral's son and Akali Dal Rajya Sabha member Naresh Gujral complimented Singh for being “truthful” and “calling a spade a spade”.