Honour promise made to 1984 riots victims, Kejri tells NDA
distribute the relief to most of the victims due to lack of funds from the central government.
However, a union home ministry official said Rajnath Singh had distributed cheques of `5 lakh to the kin of 17 victims on December 26 last year and the remaining disbursal would be carried out after the completion of the verification process.
The issue of anti-Sikh riots has haunted the Congress for decades now with the BJP calling it “genocide”.
Senior Congress leaders, including Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, are facing allegations of involvement in the riots though they have denied any role.
Disillusioned with both the Congress and the BJP, a significant section of the Sikhs in Delhi is said to have supported the
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) during the last two assembly elections (December 2013 and later in February 2015) in Delhi and in 2014 Lok Sabha polls as well.
Soon after assuming power in Delhi for the first time in 2013, the Arvind Kejriwal government’s one of the first steps during its 49-day rule was to recommend setting a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
While approving the modalities, the then Kejriwal cabinet had stated that all those cases which were closed or shown untraced would be reopened, reinvestigated and fresh FIRs also filed if the need arose.
Kejriwal had also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in implementing the AAP’s decision to ensure justice to the victims.