Rahul's remarks on anti Sikh riots kick up row

Rahul Gandhi on Friday got into a political controversy over his remarks in UK where he expressed disagreement with the view that Congress was involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, post the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.

AAP leader Jarnail Singh trained guns on the Congress president asking if that was the case then what for did former prime minister Manmohan Singh apologised in the Parliament.

He also recalled the controversial statement of late Rajiv Gandhi.

“Whom did you refer when your late father Rajiv Gandhi said that the earth shakes when a big tree falls,” Jarnail Singh said.

The BJP lashed out at Rahul for his remarks and asked him to apologise.

“denial won't wash off the blood of innocents from your family's hands. @INCIndia and your family is responsible for the carnage of thousands of Sikhs and its a fact known to the world. This explains why Sikhs have been denied justice for 34 years,” Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister and a leader from an NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal, tweeted.

Meanwhile, in Kolkata, Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram defended Rahul’s comments saying that the latter’s remarks did not aim at absolving the Congress of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and recalled that both Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had apologised over it.

Rahul, who is on a two-day visit to the UK, had on Friday told an audience of UK-based parliamentarians and local leaders in London that the incident was a "very painful tragedy", but disagreed with the view that the Congress was involved.