#Chandigarh: It’s not just the BJP , Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but there is considerable disquiet within Congress’s Punjab unit, too, over the party’s decision to appoint former Union minister Kamal Nath as its general secretary in charge of the state, sources toldHowever, despite the growing criticism related to Kamal Nath’s alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, the Congress high command defended the move, saying that no probe panel or commission has ever indicted him or mentioned his role in the killings.
But several of the party’s leaders in Punjab The Indian Express spoke to expressed unhappiness over the move. They said they were “bewildered” by the appointment that had triggered a “needless controversy and unnecessarily reopened” an emotive issue months before the elections.
But several of the party’s leaders in Punjab The Indian Express spoke to expressed unhappiness over the move. They said they were “bewildered” by the appointment that had triggered a “needless controversy and unnecessarily reopened” an emotive issue months before the elections.
Sources said some leaders had briefed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi about the controversy and the likely impact it would have on the state elections next year.
Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi , who was in Punjab Monday to lead a dharna against the drugs menace, refrained from mentioning the issue.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Nath said the controversy was uncalled for. “SAD and BJP are raising this issue 32 years after the riots. Where were they earlier? AAP is a new discovery. They are just repeating what the Akalis and the BJP are saying,” he said. Pointing out that Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was a Union minister when the Nanavati Commission’s report on the riots was debated in Parliament in 2005, Nath said, “He did not make any statement about me then. Where were they then? Suddenly, they have started making these statements. Now when they see me taking up this role they are making it an issue.”
Congress Vice president Rahul Gandhi , who was in Punjab Monday to lead a dharna against the drugs menace, refrained from mentioning the issue.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Nath said the controversy was uncalled for. “SAD and BJP are raising this issue 32 years after the riots. Where were they earlier? AAP is a new discovery. They are just repeating what the Akalis and the BJP are saying,” he said. Pointing out that Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was a Union minister when the Nanavati Commission’s report on the riots was debated in Parliament in 2005, Nath said, “He did not make any statement about me then. Where were they then? Suddenly, they have started making these statements. Now when they see me taking up this role they are making it an issue.”
Bureau Report
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