Sam Pitroda is trying extremely hard to outwit Mani Shankar Aiyar, the King of shameful comments. Earlier, Pitroda had said with regards to the 1984 organised Sikh genocide that the BJP must “move on” from this issue and “jo hua wo hua” (what happened, happened). Rahul Gandhi took to Facebook to offer an apology for Pitroda’s comments and to say that he doesn’t endorse what his mentor said. However, even while apologising, Rahul Gandhi could not stop himself from toning down and whitewashing the 1984 Sikh genocide.
Rahul Gandhi said that what Sam Pitroda said what completely out of line and he should apologise for it. He said that justice needed to be done and the people responsible for 1984 “tragedy” have to be punished. He also said that former PM Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had apologised for the “terrible tragedy” and that 1984 was a “needless tragedy”.
The keywords used by Rahul Gandhi give an indication as to how, even while apologising, Rahul Gandhi doesn’t shy away from shamelessly whitewashing the organised massacre of Sikhs in 1984.
“Needless tragedy”. “1984 tragedy”. “Terrible tragedy”.
The truth is that a devastating earthquake can be called a tragedy, Cyclone Fani that left Odisha ravaged can be called a tragedy but the organised massacre of Sikhs cannot be called one. If one is being honest about the events that led up to the massacre of thousands of Sikhs, one can only call it a massacre, driven by revenge against a community, organised by Congress, fuelled by Rajiv Gandhi.
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, one recalls the infamous speech of Rajiv Gandhi when he said that after Indira Gandhi was killed, for a few days people thought that India was shaking. He followed it up with ‘when a big tree falls, the earth shakes’.
The speech justified and fuelled the anti-Sikh hatred that was being fanned by Congress at the time. The organised genocide of 1984 claimed the lives of more than 10,00 Sikhs with the active involvement of Congress leaders. Recently, victims of the Sikh genocide had written to Rahul Gandhi saying that they will never forgive Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party for the massacre.
While Rahul Gandhi says that justice must be served and those responsible must be punished, Congress itself has rewarded leaders accused of violence/role in 1984 riots. Jagdish Tytler, was elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 and served as Union Minister of State for Surface Transport and was re-elected to Lok Sabha in 2004. He was dropped only in 2009 due to the controversy over his roles in 1984 riots.
Similarly, Sajjan Kumar was reelected in 1991 Lok Sabha and then again in 2004. In 2004 he won by the largest number of votes ever in India, 855,543, representing Congress in outer Delhi. He then served as Member, Committee on Urban Development and Committee on Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme. Tytler and Kumar are both accused of leading a murderous mob and engineering the anti-Sikh riots.
Recently, Sajjan Kumar was convicted by the Delhi High Court for murdering five Sikhs in the Delhi Cantonment area during the 1984 Sikh genocide. The court, while awarding him a life sentence and had also asked to pay Rs 5 lakh as fine.
One can also not gloss over the fact that while several people have accused Kamal Nath of playing an active role in the 1984 genocide, the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi has made him the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
The statement by Rahul Gandhi that purportedly apologises for Sam Pitroda’s comment is just as bad as his, if not worse. While he pretends to apologise for the comments, he ended up whitewashing the genocide as much as Pitroda by calling the organised genocide a ‘needless tragedy’ instead of facing and owning up to the truth of the organised massacre.
