Click to play videoNew Delhi: Congress's heir apparent Rahul Gandhi’s comments on the 1984 anti-sikh riots have come as little solace to the victims who have been living with the tragedy and the humiliation over the past 24 years.
Anti-Sikh Riot Victim Darshan Kaur’s eyes still well up at the mention of her husband and 12 other family members who were brutally killed in the 1984 anti-sikh riots.
However, what troubles Darshan more than the tragedy is the struggle for justice that followed.
The alleged perpetrators of the riots still walk free. On Monday, Darshan heard Rahul Gandhi’s words on the anti-sikh riots.
General Secy, All India Congress Committee (AICC) Rahul Gandhi said, “I think the 84 riots were absolutely wrong. In my family, we don’t see Indians as communities. We see Indians as Indians.”
It comes as little solace for Darshan and the 5,000 other Sikh families who were victims of the mass carnage.
“Why didn't Rahul talk about it earlier? If he feels bad about it, why doesn't he give us justice by punishing the guilty?” asks Darshan.
The victims have heard politicians pay lip service for decades now. Three years back, even the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Sikh himself, agreed what happened was shameful.
Manmohan Singh had said, “My head hangs in shame.”
However, nothing has changed. The BJP too is out to woo the community especially ahead of the Delhi polls.
BJP’s Delhi chief minister candidate VK Malhotra says, “We have promised to bring the culprits to book.”
As many as ten committees and commissions have been formed to take up the issue but the Sikh community that constitutes 2 per cent of our population, can now see through these empty claims.
Another riot victim Mohan Singh says, “They make these promises just ahead of elections.”
When a nation fails to offer succor to its victims, hope is all that keeps them going.
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