NEW DELHI: The AAP on Saturday challenged the BJP to take action against three of the party’s Lok Sabha MPs from Delhi for attending the condolence meeting of former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, a convict in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.Kumar, 80, died in Delhi on August 20 while serving life imprisonment in a case related to the anti-Sikh riots.According to BJP leader HS Phoolka, an advocate who represented victims of the 1984 violence and their families, party MPs Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, and Yogender Chandolia visited Kumar’s residence to offer condolences following his death.AAP Delhi chief Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the BJP was “sympathetic” towards Kumar, alleging that the saffron party had “helped” the Congress in targeting Sikh families during the 1984 riots.“Some people do say that during the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, local BJP/RSS leaders helped congress in targeting innocent Sikh families on the streets of Delhi. Is this the reason why top BJP leaders of Delhi are so sympathetic to Sajjan Kumar?” Bharadwaj posted on X.“Will @NitinNabin suspend these MPs of BJP who have backstabbed Sikhs?” he added, tagging the BJP national president.Bhardwaj also questioned the “silence” of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders on the issue. SAD leaders have repeatedly indicated that the party may join hands with its former ally, the BJP, for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab, where the AAP is currently in power.His post came after BJP leader HS Phoolka, an advocate who represented victims of the 1984 violence and their families, strongly criticised the BJP leaders for visiting Kumar’s residence.
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“Strongly condemn the visit of 3 MPs Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Ramvir Singh Bidhuri and Yogender Chandolia to mass murderer Sajjan Kumar’s residence to offer condolences on his death. This is when the BJP has always supported our quest for justice against these culprits and supported us in ensuring that he stays in jail. Sympathy should be reserved for victims and their families—many of whom live the horror of those days even till now,” Phoolka wrote.Phoolka also called for a “boycott” of the three MPs.The anti-Sikh riots broke out following the October 31, 1984, assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The assassination came months after the Army’s Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, in June 1984.
