NEW DELHI, Sept 25 — The then Home Minister, Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao was “grossly negligent” in his approach to the events during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the capital, an affidavit filed before the Justice G. T. Nanavati Commission said.

“The Home Minister (Mr P. V. Narasimha Rao) was grossly negligent in his approach to the events in the city which clearly reflected his connivance with perpetrators of the heinous crimes being committed against the Sikhs and their families with impunity,” the affidavit filed by Lt-Gen (retd) J.S . Aurora, a copy of which is in the possession of The Tribune, said.

Lt-General Aurora, hero of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, said even the then President Giani Zail Singh expressed his helplessness when contacted by him along with one Mr S. Patwant Singh on November 1, 1984.

“The President said I do not have powers to intervene. We all were amazed to hear the said remarks coming out of a man none other than the President of India, who was even otherwise morally and constitutionally bound to protect the lives and properties of the innocent citizens of India from the marauding and rampaging mobs,” the affidavit said.

“On our insistence that the President speak to the Prime Minister of India he replied that he would speak to him later,” it said.

Lt-General Aurora said as he could not reach Mr Rao, who was said to be busy in a meeting, over the telephone from Rashtrapati Bhavan, he decided to barge into the Home Minister’s residence along with Patwant Singh.

“We were surprised to see that there was no meeting in progress and absolute calm was prevailing at his (Rao’s) house and situation looked very normal and did not reflect that half the city was in flames and murders were taking place over widespread areas,” the affidavit said.

“On our request, the Home Minister came out and obviously no meeting was going on. Upon our query whether the Army was being called, the Home Minister replied ‘It will be here in the evening’.”

“When I further asked him how is it being deployed, he retorted the area commander will meet the Lt-Governor for the purpose,” the affidavit said.

“On this I suggested to him that a joint control room be set up to coordinate the police and the Army as was done in 1947 at the Viceroy’s house to monitor the situation and that he should also monitor all events on an hourly basis to which the Home Minister very casually replied ‘we will see when the Army arrives’,” Lt-General Aurora said in his affidavit.

“We noticed that the approach of the Home Minister was very casual and he did not seem to be concerned at all about Sikhs being butchered in the streets, large scale anarchy and bloodshed.”