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1984 Survivors Approach PM; Akalis Walk Out of Lower House of Parliament
June 4, 2004 | Comments Off on 1984 Survivors Approach PM; Akalis Walk Out of Lower House of Parliament
Survivors of the 1984 pogroms against Sikhs met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling for a memorial in Delhi for those massacred and a resolution condemning the pogroms. In addition:
The memorandum said as Congress leader Jagdish Tytler had a major role in the riots he should be immediately removed from the Union Council of Ministers and a fresh CBI inquiry should be ordered.
The memorandum also urged the Prime Minister to look into the rehabilitation issue of the victims.
Sikhs in Punjab placed guarded hope in the Prime Minister:
“It is good that we have a Sikh PM. But I am afraid the only thing that will change for us is that people will no longer confuse Sikhs with Osama bin Laden,” said Jagbir Singh, the headman of Panjwar village.
The scars of the conflict are still visible here in northern India. Sikh leaders say there are three main issues for the new government to tackle. First, an amnesty for rebel fighters. Second, a package of economic measures to stem the growing unemployment. Third, justice for the victims of anti-Sikh pogroms…
Dalbir Kaur’s husband, Surat Singh, was clubbed to death in November 1984 by a mob. She was forced to leave her Delhi home and live with her four children in a tent until a welfare organisation rehoused her.
“If they could find and hang the killers of Indira Gandhi in a few weeks, why have my husband’s murderers never been brought to justice?” she said.
Today, MPs from the Akali Dal party interrupted the oath-taking of newly elected MP Sajjan Kumar, a perpetrator of the 1984 pogroms, staging a walk-out during the second day of the Lok Sabha.
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