Click to play videoThe ghosts of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots have returned to haunt the Congress after Jagdish Tytler, the party’s Lok Sabha nominee from North-East Delhi, was cleared by the CBI in a riots case.
Tytler is accused of inciting a mob to attack Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. The investigating agency found witness accounts were "inconsistent and contradictory".
The CBI, after analysing the statements of two important witnesses, said on Thursday it hadn’t found evidence strong enough to make a case against Tytler.
The CBI’s decision sparked protests by Sikhs who questioned its timing: just before the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress defended itself by claiming that the CBI gave a “clean chit” to Tytler and the government had nothing do with it.
Is the Congress simply brazening it out? Will the party lose Sikh support in elections because of Tytler? CNN-IBN’s Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai asked on The Weekend Edition.
“This is the fifth time I am going to fight elections and if you look at the records in my constituency I have never lost from the Sikh pockets ever,” said Tytler.
“What happened in 1984 is a shameful thing and those guilty should be hanged,” said Tytler, who claimed he had been hounded but RSS and BJP leaders involved in the riots had been let off.
Tytler said he wanted to move on and not be harassed for the past but can the Congress afford to ignore the riots in an election year?
“No less than the Prime Minister himself, in a suo motu statement in Parliament, said what happened in 1984 was a national outrage and it should have never have happened,” said Congress Spokesperson Ashwani Kumar. “The fact remains the CBI has exonerated Mr Tytler. ”
Tytler claimed the CBI had exonerated him when BJP leader AB Vajpayee was Prime Minister. The BJP is playing politics by making allegations against him now, he claimed.
The CBI’s character has changed since when the BJP-led NDA was in power, said BJP Rajya Sabha MP and Editor-in-Chief of the Pioneer Chandan Mitra.
“The CBI exonerated him (Tytler) but then the Justice Nanavati Commission said the matter needs to be investigated further in light of fresh evidence and therefore the matter was handed over to the CBI,” said Mitra.
“The character of CBI has changed under the UPA regime. What was the purpose of exonerating Mr Tytler just before the elections in Delhi, when he has to be given a ticket. The timing is very curious,” said Mitra.
Tytler rejected Mitra’s suspicions and said the CBI gave its report according the deadline set by Justice Nanavati. “Please put a stop to this; let me go and work for the people,” he said.
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