As Minister for NRI Affairs Jagdish Tytler fought a losing battle for his survival on Wednesday, three Sikhs sat in an outhouse in 9, Tyagaraj Marg, watching their leader’s fate being decided on TV. They are among his staunchest supporters, they say.While the 1984 riot victims voiced their frustration and anger in Tilak Vihar and through rallies in Delhi, 74-year-old Ajit Singh, who runs a transport company in Vijay Nagar (in Tytler’s Delhi Sadar constituency), sees a conspiracy behind the Minister’s name being attached to the riots.Ajit Singh says his association with Tytler goes back to the 80s. Today, he has waited for hours for Tytler to come home so that he can voice his support. ‘‘We are almost like family,’’ he says.The riots are a distant memory, he says, adding that his area was largely untouched by the riots. ‘‘I run a transport company and my son at that time had gone out of Delhi on work. We didn’t hear from him after the riots broke out. My son reached three days late,’’ he says. Similarly, Vijay Singh and Paramjit Singh, both traders from Vijay Nagar, insist that the Congress MP wasn’t involved in the rioting.Says Paramjit, 58: ‘‘We weren’t affected. Nothing happened in Sadar. It (riots) is a dead issue. Nobody can continue living in the past. Will it go on forever?’’Although they claim that the attack on the Congress is politically motivated, they admit that more could have been done for the riot victims. But the Congress has helped the victims with compensation and housing, they quickly add.Then, they return to the TV images, passively watching footage of a police lathicharge on victims of the 1984 riots.
