Chandigarh January 29 – The SAD President and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked the AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal to prove the sincerity of his
demand for the formation of a Special Investigation Team into 1984
massacre by refusing to accept support from the guilty Congress party.
“The demand must not appear to be a mere political stunt and must go beyond playing to the gallery. ”
In a statement here, Mr. Badal said that asking for a probe against
the Congress role and accepting support form the same party for
staying in power looks a contradiction in itself. “You can not run
with the hare and hunt with the hound. You must take a clear stand and
not just play to the gallery. We are very happy that a political ally
of the Congress has supported our demand for an SIT, but to keep his
credentials clean, the AAP must not ahve any trucks with the party
which is unanimously seen as the guilty party.
Mr. Badal ointed out that there was no confusion about who the real
culprits were. The only issue is to bring them to book. “Even Mr.
Rahul Gandhi has admitted that Congressmen were involved in the
senseless orgy that followed Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination. ”
Mr. Badal also regretted that Mr. Kejriwal’s demand had to wait for
Mr. Rahul Gandhi’s admission of the role of his party in the massacre
even though the demand formed a part of the manifesto of the AAP.
“The massacre took place in Delhi where Mr. Kejriwal is now the Chief
Minister. For an SIT to function in an atmosphere completely free of
political interference, Delhi must not have government supported by
the Congress. Otherwise the whole purpose of the probe will be lost.
Mr. Kejriwal must not only be fair but must also be seen to be so.
The only way to do that is to remove his dependence on the party
against whose leaders the SIT has to carry out its probe,” said Mr.
Sukhbir SIngh Badal in a statement here.
Mr. Badal said that while his party and the SAD-BJP govt in
Punjab welcome Mr. Kejriwal’s call for setting up of an SIT to expose
and punish the guilty of 1984 carnage, “we want him to emphasize the
sincerity of this demand by dissociating himself and his party from
the perpetrators of this most inhuman and brutal massacre.”