New Delhi, June 25
Seeking to put behind memories of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday said the country has moved on since the “tragic incident” and that it was time to “forgive” and build a new India.

“It is time that we forgive and move on to build a new India where every citizen irrespective of faith has equal place,” Chidambaram said while addressing a function here to felicitate him for his role in removing names of 142 Sikhs from the Home Ministry’s ‘blacklist’.

The Kendriya Guru Singh Sabha (KGSS), a body headed by Tarvinder Singh Marwah, a Congress MLA from Jangpura in south Delhi, had organised the event.

“We have moved on when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, we have moved on subsequently, we have moved on when Manmohan Singh made that poignant speech asking for forgiveness, we moved on since Sonia Gandhi became Congress president,” he said.

The Home Minister was referring to Manmohan Singh’s speech in Parliament in 2005 where he apologised to the Sikh community for the incident.

“One small step had remained and that was to remove the names from what is called the blacklist. I am happy that I played a small and humble part in removing 142 names from the list,” Chidambaram said.

The government, last month, had removed from its “blacklist” the names of 142 wanted terrorists and their associates. All of them are based in Europe, US, Canada and Pakistan.

Noting that government would initiate all possible steps to address the grievances of the Sikh community, he said orders would be issued “shortly” to help the Sikhs who have returned from strife-hit Afghanistan.

Referring to the community’s complaint that it faces difficulties in getting visa to visit Nankana Sahib, he said the issue is also being addressed to.