Not there during ’84, but happily own up Cong mistakes: Rahul

Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, in response to a question on Congress’ role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, has said that a lot of these “mistakes” happened when “I was not there”, but added that he is happy to take responsibility for “everything the party has ever done wrong in its history”.

Rahul made the remarks during an interaction at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in Brown University, US, two weeks ago.

Rahul’s response came after a Sikh student referred to his earlier statement that “the fight in India is about whether a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear a turban, a kada or go to the gurdwara”.

“You create a fear among Sikhs about what the BJP would look like, you talked about how politics should be fearless, we don’t just want to wear kadas or turbans, we want freedom of expression, which has not been allowed under the Congress rule in the past,” the student asked Gandhi.

He went on to add that the Anandpur Sahib Resolution talked about Dalit rights and mentioned nothing of separatism, but the then Congress labelled it a separatist document. “This is something your party has done, your party seems to lack the maturity to accept the mistakes it has made,” he said.

The student also referred to former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who had been convicted of murder linked to the 1984 riots, and said: “Many more Sajjan Kumars are sitting in the Congress.” “You tell us to fear what the ‘BJP India’ would look like, but you haven’t tried to reconcile with the Sikhs. What attempts are you making, because if you continue like this, the BJP is also going to make its way into Punjab,” he asked.

Gandhi responded by saying that he didn’t think Sikhs were scared of anything. “The statement I made was whether we want an India where people are uncomfortable to express their religion. As far as mistakes of the Congress are concerned, a lot of those happened when I was not there, but I am more than happy to take responsibility for everything the Congress has ever done wrong in its history,” he said.

“I have publicly stated that what happened in the 1980s was wrong, I have been to the Golden Temple multiple times, I have extremely good relationships with the Sikh community in India,” Rahul said.

Tagging that segment of the interaction, BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya had earlier said: “‘You haven’t reconciled with the Sikhs’, a young man tells Rahul Gandhi to his face, reminding him of the unfounded fear-mongering he engaged in during his last visit to the US.”

“It is quite unprecedented that Rahul is now being ridiculed not just in India, but around the world,” Malviya added.