Kamal Nath’s Punjab poll job under 1984 riots cloud

But several of the party’s leaders in Punjab The Indian Express spoke to expressed unhappiness over the move. They said they were “bewildered” by the appointment that had triggered a “needless controversy and unnecessarily reopened” an emotive issue months before the elections.

[related-post]

Watch Video: What’s making news

Sources said some leaders had briefed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi about the controversy and the likely impact it would have on the state elections next year.

Rahul, who was in Punjab Monday to lead a dharna against the drugs menace, refrained from mentioning the issue.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Nath said the controversy was uncalled for. “SAD and BJP are raising this issue 32 years after the riots. Where were they earlier? AAP is a new discovery. They are just repeating what the Akalis and the BJP are saying,” he said. Pointing out that Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was a Union minister when the Nanavati Commission’s report on the riots was debated in Parliament in 2005, Nath said, “He did not make any statement about me then. Where were they then? Suddenly, they have started making these statements. Now when they see me taking up this role they are making it an issue.”

Earlier, asked by reporters whether he would relinquish the post if the high command ask him to do so, Nath said, “I have never asked for it and whatever will be the decision, it would be acceptable for me.”

On Monday, leading the charge against Nath was SAD supremo and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal who termed his appointment as “the ultimate insult to Sikhs”.

“It is an unbelievable brazen act of insensitivity towards Sikhs and crass and vulgar disregard of national opinion on the guilty of the massacre of thousands of innocent Sikh children, men and women by Congress goons in November 1984. I just cannot believe a political party can be so brutally insensitive to the sentiments of Sikhs,” Badal said.

Speaking on behalf of AAP, H S Phoolka cited documents to claim that the Congress leader was a part of the mob that attacked the Rakab Ganj Sahib Gurudwara in Delhi on November 1, 1984 — two Sikhs were also burnt to death in the attack.

“One Mukhtiar Singh, who is now the manager of Rakab Ganj Gurudwara, had filed an affidavit before the Nanavati
Commission. He (Mukhtiar) states that Kamal Nath was a part of the mob that attacked Gurudwara Rakab Ganj on November 1, 1984. Kamal Nath too, in his affidavit before the Commission, accepts his presence on that day,” Phoolka said.

Phoolka said that by appointing Nath as the in charge of Punjab, the Congress has tried “to rub salt into wounds” of the victims.

Meanwhile, addressing reporters in Delhi, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the allegations against Nath were part of “a mischievous campaign”.

”There is no truth in it. From 1984 to 2005, nobody took Kamal Nath’s name. He was a minister at the Centre, general secretary of the Congress. No committee had ever named Kamal Nath, nor had anybody approached these commissions. No witness ever testified against him. The first time his name came up was before the Nanavati Commission,” Sharma said.

The Congress also hit out at AAP for levelling allegations against Nath. “The AAP, after having performed miserably in Delhi, is mischievously misrepresenting facts to achieve narrow political dividends. What AAP has said about Kamal Nath is perverse, contrary to the facts which had been negated over the years.The Congress party rejects this perverse and mischievous campaign,” said Sharma.

Asked whether the Congress would buckle under the growing anger, Sharma said, “Where is the growing anger? What is measuring meter of that anger? Phoolka, (Arvind) Kejriwal, political opportunists? Is this is how you measure public anger? Public anger has been artificially created. It is nefarious agenda, it is a perverse mindset. There is no question of Congress party ever buckling under pressure. Truth will eventually prevail.”

In Punjab, the only two voices of support for Nath came from MLAs and state party vice presidents Brahm Mohindra and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. “It was the BJP-appointed Justice Nanavati Commission, which had exonerated Nath from all allegations,” they said in a joint statement.

They said that not only Nanavati Commission, even the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission, had also found no role of Nath in the riots. Brahm is considered close to Nath.