During the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, senior Congress leader and former Prime Minister, who was contesting from South Delhi constituency had blamed the RSS for 1984 Sikh genocide. Pinning the blame on the RSS, Dr Singh had said that Congress had no role in the Sikh pogrom and that the ideological wing of BJP, i.e RSS is being the 1984 Sikh carnage.
To defend his claim that Congress had no involvement in the organised killings of Sikhs, Manmohan Singh cited how despite him being a Sikh, the Congress government at the centre in 1984 awarded him with Padma Vibushan. He argued that he wouldn’t have received the coveted award if the Congress government at the centre had an institutionalised anti-Sikh prejudice. Dr Singh also claimed that the First Information Reports(FIRs) lodged at several police stations in Delhi during the Sikh riots revealed the involvement of many RSS men in the riots.
However, contrary to Dr Singh said, another report from 2003 states that the minorities panel chief lauded the commendable services rendered by the RSS in protecting the beleaguered Sikhs during the organised massacre in 1984. Addressing a condolences meeting for late RSS chief Rajendra Singh, minorities panel chief Tarlochan Singh said, “The RSS and Sikhs have always fought shoulder to shoulder. Sikhs can never forget how RSS activists protected them during the partition and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.” He also added how at the peak of the Khalistan movement, RSS had asked Hindus to treat Punjabi as their mother-tongue.
Recently, Congress advisor and mentor to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Sam Pitroda stirred a furore by trivialising the horrendous massacre of Sikhs in 1984 by saying ‘Hua to Hua’. Sensing the snowballing outrage caused by his remarks, Rahul Gandhi himself had to apologise for his comments, albeit appearing to whitewash the 1984 organised Sikh genocide.
While condemning Pitroda’s unseemly remarks, Rahul also mentioned in his post how the erstwhile Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his mother Sonia Gandhi have already apologised for the “needless tragedy”. Far from being a tragedy, the events that led up to the massacre denote that it was hate crime driven against a particular community, on orders of the Congress leadership, fuelled by Rajiv Gandhi.
