Team News Riveting
Chandigarh, December 8
Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has hinted that he is going to rake up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a blot that has always put Congress on the backfoot.
The issue is likely to put the grand-old party in a pickle ahead of the Punjab election where it is in power. The state of Punjab will go to the polls in the next couple of months.
Captain Amarinder lashed out at the Congress high command for appointing Ajay Maken as the chairman of the party’s screening committee for shortlisting candidates for the upcoming elections. He diverted the issue to the anti-Sikh riot of 1984, giving overt signal that it could be a major poll plank in Punjab for the ensuing elections.
In a statement, Amarinder said Maken was the nephew of Lalit Maken, one of the main culprits of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The Congress should have avoided naming someone like Maken, as the name itself drew “derision and revulsion in Punjab due to the involvement of his late uncle in the anti-Sikh riots.
The recent court development on Sajjan Kumar has added further complication as the court has directed to frame murder charges on Congress leader for the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. The issue is likely to cast its shadow on the prospects of the ruling party in Punjab elections.
Unlike other Sikh Congress leaders, Captain Amarainder Singh has raised strong protest against the party over Sikh sentiments. Deeply hurt with the Operation Blue Star in 1984 when the Indian army stormed the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple, the Maharaja (titular) of Patiala Amarinder Singh resigned not only from the Congress party but also from the Parliament.
Captain is no longer with Congress and the issue of anti-Sikh riots is likely to empower him to expand the footprint of his new regional political outfit Punjab Lok Congress.
