GK takes on CM over ‘clean chit’ to Rajiv in ’84 riots

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 12

A day after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh claimed that Rajiv Gandhi was in West Bengal when the 1984 riots broke out, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK today asked the CM to examine the facts before giving the “clean chit” to the former Prime Minister.

The CM had yesterday accused SAD leaders of resorting to desperate measures to malign Rajiv.

The DSGMC chief said Capt Amarinder either did not want to speak the truth or had been directed by the Gandhi family to issue a wrong statement.

He said former President Pranab Mukherjee’s book ‘The Turbulent Years’ had given details of Rajiv’s whereabouts on October 31, 1984. Manjit Singh GK said Rajiv was informed through a police wireless message at 9:30 am about the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when he was in Contai (West Bengal). At that time, Cabinet Ministers Pranab Mukherjee and Ghani Khan Chaudhary were with Rajiv. Mukherjee wrote that he had directed senior police officers to bring a special aircraft from New Delhi. Rajiv, Mukherjee and Ghani Khan reached Kolghat, covering a distance of 100 km by road, from where they departed for Kolkata in a chopper. About 1 pm, Rajiv and his colleagues had left for Delhi in a special aircraft of Indian Airlines, Manjit Singh GK said, quoting the book.

Then President Giani Zail Singh, who was on an official tour to Oman, had returned by 4 pm that day, the SAD leader said.

Manjit Singh GK stated that after being elevated as Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi and ministers Mukherjee, P Shivshankar, PV Narasimha Rao and Buta Singh had called a meeting and directed that Indira’s body would be kept for three days at Teen Murti Bhawan.

The DSGMC chief asked Capt Amarinder Singh to wait for the truth to surface before questioning the SAD’s demand for an inquiry into the Gandhi family’s alleged involvement in the riots.