New Delhi: The anger over Congress leader Jagdish Tytler being given a clean chit in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case has spilled over to parts of Punjab.
Sikh protestors have taken to streets in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Beas, Patiala and Sangrur towns of the state and there are also reports of them blocking trains to Punjab.
While 1984 riots case has always been an emotive issue in Punjab, it flared up few days ago when the Central Bureau of Investigation gave a clean chit to Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar – accused of inciting a mob that killed hundreds of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984.
On Tuesday, a journalist added fuel to fire when he threw a shoe at Home Minister P Chidambaram during a press conference.
The journalist, Jarnail Singh, was demanding an explanation on the CBI clean chit and lost his cool when Chidambaram did not entertain his argument.
After the shoe-throwing incident, pressure has been mounting on Congress to withdraw Tytler’s candidature from Lok Sabha elections.
Sources say the party is a divided house and a crucial meeting supposed to be held on Wednesday evening may decide Tytler ‘s future in the polls.
On Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that the shoe-throwing incident should serve as an "eye-opener" for the Centre and Congress about the "magnitude of pain and angst" among the Sikhs.
"This pain and angst is not confined merely to the Sikh community but is shared by all the right-thinking people in the country and all over the world," Badal said.
"The victims have been awaiting justice for nearly 25 years. What has rubbed salt into their wounds now is the unabashed clean chit given to (Congress leader) Jagdish Tytler by the CBI," Badal said in a statement here.
He said it was significant that Jarnail Singh has no history of "fundamentalist leanings" and is in fact a liberal, educated Sikh with no political affiliations.
"The legality or decorum of the method adopted by him might be called into question but there is no mistaking the sanctity of his pain and the justness of his cause", he said.
He said various independent judicial commissions had indicted Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and many of their senior Congress colleagues for their role in 1984 riots but "instead of prosecuting them, the successive Congress governments at the Centre have chosen to subvert the law of the country."
Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the shoe-throwing incident shows the simmering anger within the Sikhs.
(With inputs from PTI)
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