“We want justice for the victims of 1984 and are demanding an SIT probe in the riots”
IANS/New Delhi
Opposition parties yesterday demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi admitted some members of his party may have been involved in the violence.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung yesterday to submit his request for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the riots.
“The meeting went on for around half-an-hour. Najeeb Jung has promised that his request would be considered and the prime minister will be informed,” an official said.
Kejriwal later told reporters his Aam Admi party had promised to demand an SIT probe in its election manifesto and was fulfilling the promise.
The Delhi government at its cabinet meeting tomorrow will discuss the parameters of an SIT, Education Minister Manish Sisodia said later.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Harsh Vardhan also met Jung yesterday afternoon.
“We want justice for the victims of 1984 and are demanding an SIT probe in the riots,” Vardhan told reporters.
Akali Dal’s Delhi unit president Manjit Singh G K said since Gandhi himself has acknowledged the role of Congress leaders in the riots, he should take action against them.
“We don’t want an apology but action against the culprits in the 1984 riots. We demand an SIT probe,” Singh said, adding that a protest would be organised outside the Congress Party’s headquarters today morning.
Gandhi in a rare interview broadcast on Monday said the government led by his party did everything it could to control the violence against minority Sikhs in retaliation for the assassination of his grandmother, then prime minister Indira Gandhi, by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the riots and rights activists accuse the Congress of having turned a blind eye and say some of its leaders helped orchestrate the violence.
Meanwhile, a US federal court will hear on March 19 a motion filed by the Congress Party for dismissing a human rights violation case relating to the anti-Sikh violence.
Federal Judge Robert W Sweet will hear the motion filed by the Congress on January 17 before the US Federal Court of Southern District of New York.
The motion challenges the court’s jurisdiction, the legal standing of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a New York-based human rights group, to file the case, and asserts that the statute of limitations has expired.
In support of its motion, the Congress has again submitted a 2012 declaration filed by party treasurer Motilal Vora claiming that the US Court summons has not been received by the party in accordance with the Hague Service Convention.
He has also denied any relationship between the Congress Party of India and the US-based Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC).
The SFJ has been given time until February 17 to respond to Congress’s motion to dismiss, according to SFJ’s legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Pannun alleged that the party has attempted to mislead the US Court by submitting a two-year old declaration by Vora which has already been disregarded by the court.
In its September 19 decision, the court had ruled that the Congress has been properly served under Hague Service Convention and granted permission to conduct jurisdictional discovery to unearth the connection between INC and INOC, he claimed.
To challenge Congress’s motion to dismiss, SFJ will submit evidence of most recent appointment of office bearers of INOC by Congress Party officials, Pannun said.
In March 2011, the US Court had issued summons against the Congress Party in a class action law suit filed under Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and Torture Victim Protection Act.