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Following the widespread criticism of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s remark of no involvement of party men in the Anti- Sikh riots of 1984, the Congress party fielded senior leader P Chidambaram to defend Rahul Gandhi over his remarks.
The former finance minister came out in support of his party president’s comment on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and said Rahul Gandhi cannot be held responsible for something that took place when he was 13-14 years.
It may be re- called that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the UK, had told an audience of UK-based parliamentarians and local leaders in London that the incident was a “very painful tragedy”, but disagreed with the view that the Congress was involved. Chidambaram said, “Congress was in office in 1984, nobody is denying that.
A very terrible thing happened in 1984 for which Dr Manmohan Singh has apologised in Parliament. We are not saying that the Congress is absolved. Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi has also apologised and on numerous occasion, some of us have also said what happened in 1984 was a terrible thing.”
“Now, you can’t hold Rahul Gandhi responsible for that – he was 13 or 14 years of age then… He has not absolved anyone. What Rahul Gandhi has said is there is on the AICC website. The full text is there you can have a look at it, please read it,” the former finance minister said. Rahul Gandhi had also said he was “100 per cent” for the punishment for those involved in any violence against any body.
Congress gets ready for 2019
Rahul Gandhi , Congress president has announced a core group and two other committees- namely Publicity and Manifesto as the party gears up for the next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
The nine-member core group named by party president Rahul Gandhi comprises AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot, P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Singh Surjewala and KC Venugopal.
Apart from P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, the 19-member manifesto committee has Manpreet Singh Badal, Sushmita Dev, Rajeev Gowda, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, Bindu Krishnan, Kumari Selja, Raghuveer Meena, Balchandra Mungekar, Meenakshi Natarajan, Rajni Patil, Sam Pitroda, Sachin Rao, Tamradhwaj Sahu, Mukul Sangma, Lalitesh Tripathi.
