Click to play videoSikh journalist Jarnail Singh threw a shoe at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram over the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) clean chit to Congress Jagdish Tytler in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
Just a few days ago the Congress office in Jalandhar was set on fire over the same issue. Even though Singh has been let off, Sikh leaders are to meet on Wednesday and discuss the anti-Sikh riots cases.
Singh later said that he regretted his shoe-throwing act. But with Lok Sabha elections around the corner, the Sikh community could give the Congress a reason to worry. The CBI clean chit to Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots has also given the Opposition an explosive election issue.
With the Congress on the backfoot after the shoe-throwing incident, Face the Elections debated: Shoe thrown at Chidambaram: Is the Congress underestimating Sikh anger?
The panelists included Congress MP and Spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and Editor-In-Chief, The Pioneer Chandan Mitra and Kanwar Sandhu, senior journalist who covered 1984 anti-Sikh riots
The shoe-throwing incident is an indictment of Congress and its decision to give Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar tickets to contest Lok Sabha elections.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi refuted the allegations and claimed that Congress has always been sensitive to the Sikh community.
“The method and modality of giving vent to that anger was wrong. It will be the beginning of end of journalistic morality and ethics and also democracy if giving vent to anger through that method is accepted and justified. Congress has not been like the BJP in being insensitive to Godhra and Gujarat. The maximum numbers of persons punished in riots have been by Congress governments. Even high-profile figures like HKL Bhagat have lost their political careers. Whenever a case was pending and one of them was a minister, he was removed although he was not convicted,” said Singhvi.
“Despite the fact we have given the largest amount of compensation we are in the process of considering this issue very sensitively and very carefully,” he added.
The Sikhs have voted for the Congress in Punjab and brought it to power even after the 1984 riots. There are reports that this is not a big issue among the Sikhs and the 1984 riots may well be just a political issue but not an electoral issue.
Chandan Mitra agreed that Sikhs have voted in favour of the Congress but he argued that the Tytler case was not just a legal issue but also a moral one.
“It has got nothing to do with voting. As a journalist I also feel that the method of protest was wrong. No journalist ought to have done this and this is going to create enormous difficulties for their interaction with politicians in future. From the time CBI gave a clean chit to Jagdish Tytler there have been demonstrations. Sikhs in Delhi are much more agitated than maybe Sikhs in Punjab because Punjab was not really affected by riots. Delhi was the place where more than 3,000 Sikhs were massacred,” said Mitra.
But the BJP, too, never took up the issue seriously and did not prosecute any of the accused when it was in power.
Mitra refuted the charge saying, “It was during the NDA rule that the Nanavati Commission was appointed to probe the riots. It is because the Nanavati Commission concluded that further inquiries were needed in the case of Jagdish Tytler and that is why the case was reopened. There is a process of law and you cannot circumvent it.”
But isn’t the BJP also guilty of making Kandhamal riot accused a candidate for Orissa Assembly elections.
“In Kandhamal riots the person is just an accused. The trial has not yet begun and you cannot condemn anyone till he/she has been convicted. This is an entirely different issue and not at all comparable,” the BJP leader argued.
The Congress seems to be making a comeback in Punjab but the clean chit to Tytler may cost the party in the state. However, Singhvi claimed that the issue would not affect Congress’ poll prospects. Instead he charged the BJP of shielding Gujarat riot accused.
“There is no question of being worried or panicky. Despite no conviction we have said we will consider public sensitivity. Congress’ conscience is totally clean. We have been sensitive. What happened in Godhra is sheer insensitivity. We are not like the BJP who turn their eyes the other way. There is concern and sensitivity in the Congress unlike the BJP,” Singhvi said.
Is there a qualitative difference between 1984 and 2002?
Mitra said: “Yes! There is a qualitative difference. 1984 was a state-sponsored riot. But then there is the question of perception. Tytler has won elections and become a minister and yet this issue comes up again and again. It is utter insensitivity on the part of Congress to again repeat him as a candidate and just a week before that gets a clean chit issued by the CBI to him.”
Singhvi quickly countered Mitra saying, “On one hand Mitra and others say the law must take its own course. There is no conviction, there is no culpability. Till the court decides he has a clean position.”
Mitra retorted, “Congress has a right to field Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. But then they should be ready for protest as seen on the streets of Delhi.”
So what is the feeling in the Punjab? Is the Congress on the backfoot in the state?
Noted journalist Kanwar Sandhu said that the clean chit to Tytler and Tuesday’s shoe-throwing incident had not yet become a major election issue in the state.
“It may be little early to say that. The riots have never been a big issue except in certain areas where the riots victim are there. It may be too early. The anger is there and it has been there for years now. The violence against Sikhs took place in 1984 and he was given a ticket in ‘84, ’91, 2004. He was given a ministerial berth too. CBI giving clean chit to him in the run-up to the elections is like rubbing salt to the wounds,” said Sandhu.
“I think the incident has boomeranged. May be the Election Commission needs to restrain the investigative agencies on old pending cases on the reports given in the run-up to the elections,” he said.
But should not a journalist be a free of ethnicity, religion, caste and class affiliations? A journalist should be a journalist first and only then as a person with religious affiliations.
Sandhu said that Jarnail Singh was agitated because the law failed to punish the guilty in the case.
“I don’t think there is a contradiction at all. I see myself as a Sikh and I See myself as a journalist. The rule of law has not been followed over the years. But as a journalist I very strongly feel that this is very unfortunate. This should not have happened. We have some immunity and with incidents like these that can be taken away. A sports journalist cannot jump into a boxing ring and a war correspondent cannot start shooting with a gun. Journalist should exercise restraint,” he concluded.
Final SMS/ Web poll: Shoe thrown at Chidambaram: Is the Congress underestimating Sikh anger?
Yes: 74 per cent
No: 26 per cent
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
