Sukhbir Badal takes on Rahul Gandhi over badminton remark

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal president and Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal on Monday slammed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for showing insensitivity in recalling that he played badminton with the assassins of his mother, but made no mention of more than 3,000 Sikhs who were killed in the riots that followed Indira Gandhi's death.

"The 1984 genocide of Sikhs can never be forgotten and should have found a mention in his speech in Jaipur," said Sukhbir. Making the "safety of Sikhs in the country" his slogan, Sukhbir is in Delhi with his ministers to woo voters away from the incumbent Congress-backed Sarna camp for control over cash-rich Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC), elections to which are to be held.

"The riots remain a slur on our democracy, in which no case was registered by the police for years and even judiciary did not bother to take action against the culprits as it did in the Gujarat riots case. What happened before and after 1984 was equally unfortunate and not isolated from what happened to the Gandhi parivar. The massacre deserves equal mention if not less. That's what I am telling our Sikh brothers in Delhi," Sukhbir Badal told TOI, while referring to his campaign speech.

On Sunday, Rahul speaking at the Congress chintan shivir, had said he had memories of his childhood badminton partners, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who later killed his grandmother Indira Gandhi. That tragedy had "had taken away the balance of his life", he said.

Angry Sukhbir accused the Congress of demeaning Sikhism's identity, saying that their party chief and Rahul have no interest in harboring peace for the Sikhs as even after 25 years of struggle, families of riot victims haven't got justice. "The struggle to bring the perpetrators of the 1984 carnage to justice is an unfinished task," he said.

"The November 1984 massacre rankles with me every night and shakes me up. I was hardly 21 then. I have heard the stories of the turbans of my relatives being burnt in front of my father's eyes. There were instances where my own friends fled Punjab to work for menial jobs abroad and vowed never to return to India. We need to ensure there is no repeat of that ever," Sukhbir said.