Click to play videoChandigarh: The CBI clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler in the '84 anti-Sikh riots is becoming a huge political issue in Punjab.
With street protests spreading across the state, the Shiromani Akali Dal is turning up the heat on the Congress.
For the Congress, the timing of clean chit could not be have been worse. The protests have spread, so much so, that some Sikhs were arrested in Delhi after they threatened to set themselves on fire outside the PM's house.
The anger is not just on the streets but also within the party.
"It’s natural that the Sikhs are upset and wounded. '84 riots were a great tragedy. Their wounds are still hurting but as far as the CBI decision goes, its not particular to the Central Government, it is not a Union Government decision," said Defence Minister A K Antony.
It’s not the first admission of guilt by the congress, but it's again a matter of timing.
In Punjab, the reaction from within the Congress hits where it hurts the most.
AICC member and former Punjab assembly speaker Bir Devinder Singh quit the party, quoting his conscience.
“Even CBI has failed to detect where the killers went, vanished or perished. What happened to justice in India?” Singh questioned.
For the BJP, too, the CBI's clean chit has galvanised the opposition.
“There has not been a single FIR filed in the case. This is cowardice,” said BJP MP from Amritsar, Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Congress leadership could face an angry backlash in Lok Sabha constituencies of North India where Sikhs are in sizeable numbers.
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