Has AAP outdone BJP by ordering SIT probe into 1984 anti-Sikh riots?

After having made significant electoral inroads in the Delhi Assembly elections into a community that has been a traditional stronghold of the BJP, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government is aggressively championing the cause of the 1984 riot victims, much to the unease of the Opposition party.

Following through on the poll promise to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced that Delhi government will approach the Lieutenant Governor on setting up the SIT on the 1984 riots once the Cabinet approves the decision when it meets early next week.

Arvind Kejriwal. PTI

The 1984 riots, in which 3000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi, occurred in the aftermath of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The announcement by the AAP government comes days after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in a TV interview on Monday, in response to a question on the involvement Congress men in the riots said, "some Congress men were probably involved."

Gandhi's comment, being read as an open admission of Congress party's involvement in the riots has led to angry reactions by members of the Sikh community. On Thursday morning, members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), ally of the BJP in the state, protested outside the Congress headquarters demanding that Gandhi be asked to reveal names of those who are guilty.

But while the Opposition kicks and shouts, Kejriwal's call for an SIT has stolen the BJP's thunder on the 1984 riots, a cause that the party has always sought to champion. And the one-month-old Chief Minister didn't hesitate to rub it in, when he addressed the press Thursday.

"The Sikh community has been demanding that a comprehensive SIT be set up that will gather all the evidence and conduct an investigation on the 1984 riots. Obviously one of the political parties was involved and therefore it cannot be expected from that party that it will order such a probe. The other party, which was in government in Delhi five years and at the Centre for six, only made demands but did nothing. I spoke to the LG (about setting up an SIT) and he has given a positive response. On Monday or Tuesday, we will discuss it and if the cabinet passes we will to the LG," he said.

By accusing the BJP of 'only making demands and not doing anything,' Kejriwal was not only consolidating the support he and his party have received from the Sikh community but scoring political points over the BJP.

The BJP, though taken aback perhaps by the government's headline-grabbing decision, is no mood to concede ground to the upstart party.

Reacting to Kejriwal's remarks, BJP leader Harsh Vardhan said, "He is wrong on that. He should to check his facts first. What the NDA government did he can find out from the records... There is nothing new that he is doing. He is taking up these issues now. We have been taking up these issues for the last thirty years."

On the government's move to set up the SIT, Harsh Vardhan said, "We don't mind if another inquiry is set up. We have been asking for these inquiries and commissions... so many things have been happening since 1984. But it is time for the Congress to take action against those who are guilty because now Rahul Gandhi has also accepted it. As far any new inquiry is concerned, we are all for what the government proposes. But let them first concentrate on giving punishment to those who are guilty in the earlier commissions."

The growing support in the Sikh community for AAP is something that must worry the BJP. The announcement last month by an influential voice in the Sikh community, HS Phoolka, an advocate who has been fighting a tireless battle for the victims of the 1984-riots, that he was joining forces with Kejriwal is indicative of a real sense of disillusionment with the BJP.

Speaking to Firstpost during an earlier interview on the reasons why Sikhs were choosing AAP over BJP, Phoolka had said,"...During Madan Lal Khurana's (former Delhi CM and BJP leader) regime, he always took Sikhs with him. So the Sikhs felt part of the BJP. But after that, over the years, no serious effort was made to carry the Sikhs along and give them a feeling of being part of the party. Of course, the BJP has been supporting the struggle of 1984 and that is the reason I have been working closely with them. But as far as ordinary Sikhs were concerned, they were not very happy." (Read more here.)