Shocked at Cong leader’s remark, says Capt, and invokes Godhra

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 10

Expressing his total disagreement with Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s controversial remarks — “hua toh hua” — on the 1984 riots, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said if Pitroda had actually said this, it was “shocking”.

“The 1984 riots were a big tragedy and justice has yet not been meted out to the victims. If some individual leaders were allegedly involved in the riots, they should be punished as per law,” he said.

At the same time, he took strong exception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “offensive attempt to link Rajiv Gandhi with the 1984 riots” and sought to draw a comparison with the Godhra massacre, which took place while Modi was Gujarat CM.

“What if someone starts linking Modi with Godhra?” he asked, adding that it did not behove the PM to stoop to such levels to win an election.

He said  since the riots had happened, he had been saying that he had heard accusations about the involvement of Sajjan Kumar, HKL Bhagat, Dharam Das Shastri, Lalit Maken and Arjun Das, and, till date, he stands by his statement. “Modi should not forget that names of several BJP and RSS leaders had figured in the 1984 riots’ FIR,” Capt Amarinder said, while calling for action, as per law, against all those found responsible for the mayhem unleashed on innocent Sikhs.