Row over Tytler, Sajjan at Cong’s ‘harmony’ fast
NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, accused in the 1984 anti-sikh riots in Delhi, were allegedly asked to step down from the stage during a day-long fast organised by the party on Monday, leading to criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over their presence at the event.
While Kumar left the venue, Tytler sat in the audience at Rajghat, where party president Rahul Gandhi stepped up his attack on PM Narendra Modi, asserting that the Congress would always stand up to what he described as the BJP’S “casteist” and “anti-dalit” ideology.
Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken later said the two leaders were not asked to leave. “The presence or non-presence of an individual is not an issue. Anyone can come and go. The BJP is vitiating the atmosphere. Politics of hatred and division is being promoted,” added party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.
“I was at the dais at 10.30am. Nobody was present there except former DPCC chief Subhash Chopra and one worker of Seva Dal. When I asked Maken when the party president would arrive, I was informed he will come at 1pm. Then I came down to meet party workers on my own,” Tytler later said. But the BJP waved off the denials by the Congress leaders, with spokesperson Sambit Patra insisting that Kumar and Tytler leaving the stage before Rahul Gandhi arrived was an “acceptance of guilt”.