New Delhi, December 14
While promising to heal the wounds of the Sikh community, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the Centre had asked the Delhi Lt-Governor to speedily act on the CBI’s request for prosecution of Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar for their alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
“We have advised the Lt-Governor to take a decision and I will once again request him to take a decision before the end of this month,’’ he told the Rajya Sabha, replying to a marathon debate on a calling attention motion on the progress of relief to the victims and measures taken to punish the guilty. The notice for the motion was given by Independent member from Haryana Tarlochan Singh.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley’s argument that the Delhi Lt-Governor functions under the Home Minister and, therefore, Chidambaram himself was competent enough to take a decision into the matter was contested by the Home Minister. “The Lt-Governor is the competent authority’’ in this case, Chidamaram pointed out, adding that his objective was to proceed with an “impartial, speedy and fearless” inquiry. Dissastisfied with what BJP leader S S Ahluwalia described as hopeless reply by the Home Minister, the BJP and the Akali Dal walked out of the House.
The CBI had completed investigation or reinvestigation of seven cases against Tytler, Sajjan Kumar and late Dharam Das Shastri. In four cases, it had sought permission from the competent authority (Lt-Governor of Delhi) to prosecute the accused, he said.
Reiterating the government’s apology to the Sikhs for the massacre, Chidambaram expressed frustration over the fact that he could not proceed against the police officers found guilty of dereliction of duty during the riots
since 25 years had gone by. He was of the view that immediately after the riots, the government should have formulated an act to override legal obstacles so that the guilty could not escape the process of law even after the passage of time. “I am trying to see how those police officers could be proceeded against.’’ On compensation to the victims, the Home Minister said there were cases pending in Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Delhi and some other states with regard to disputes among successors. In certain cases, the claimants were not traceable. He had also asked the authorities in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh to complete the compensation process by December 31 and file the claims with the Centre by January, 2010.
Referring to 1,115 requests for jobs from the affected families in Delhi, he said he was not satisfied with the way the Delhi Government was approaching the matter. “I intend to deal with the matter directly and see that jobs are provided as early as possible.’’ Participating in the debate, Jaitley charged that the government was sitting over the CBI’s request for the prosecution of the accused. He lashed out at the Congress for shielding its leaders, who had played a role in instigating the riots. Initiating the debate, Tarlochan Singh criticised successive governments for not taking any action against the guilty.
Speaking on the behalf of the Congress, Ashwani Kumar said the UPA leadership and the Congress fully shared the anguish of the nation over the killings. He said as per the Prime Minister’s assurance, the UPA government had pursued investigations and prosecutions against those accused of violence and riots. However, his point of view that it was time to move forward, drew angry responses from Mahender Singh Majithia of SAD and Avtar Singh Karimpuri of the BSP.
Naresh Gujral of SAD lambasted Congress leaders for “selective secularism”.
Brinda Karat of the CPM submitted a list of five missing people and had details of Sikh families who had not received compensation or who had been paid inadequate compensation.
