The Lok Sabha on Wednesday suspended the Question Hour and took up for discussion an Opposition-sponsored adjounment motion on the Nanavati Commission report as the Shiromani Akali Dal launched a blistering attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government accusing it of failing to take any action against those indicted by the Commission.
"Four thousand Sikhs, including women and children, were butchered but not a single person has been punished," Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, SAD leader and former Union Minister, said initiating the discussion.
Earlier, the Speaker suspended the Question Hour and allowed discussion on the National Democratic Alliance-sponsored Adjournment Motion on the failure of government to take action against persons indicted by the Commission.
Dhindsa said 9 Commissions had been set up so far to look into the '84 riots but 'we did not get justice. What we are demanding is that at least people indicted by the Nanavati Commission should be punished.'
"We were happy when Manmohan Singh, who is a Sikh, became the Prime Minister. But I want to ask him what happened to his community which never got any justice," he said.
He said the House should ensure that all those indicted by the Commission should be punished and cases registered against them.
Dhindsa said the involvement of 4 people -- H K L Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and Dharamdas Shastri -- had been mentioned everywhere but no action had been taken against them.
Also see: The Justice Nanavati Interview
He recalled that Jagjit Singh Arora, hero of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, could not go to his house and had to stay at the residence of former Prime Minister I K Gujral as Sikhs were being "butchered and murdered".
"We only want justice," Dhindsa said, adding the Sikh community had made immense sacrifices for the country before and after the independence.
Pawan Kumar Bansal (Cong) accused the Akali Dal of making political capital out of the tragedy in 1984.
"Do not bake your political cake on the funeral pyre of others," Bansal said, adding whatever happened after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in Delhi and some other places was a blot on the fair name of India.
Dismissing charges against the Congress regarding the killings, he said the ruling party had always worked for the welfare of the Sikh community and had never regarded the Akali Dal as the representative of that community.
That was why the people of Punjab had given the Congress the mandate in early 1990s after the waning of the militancy, Bansal said, adding "what can we do if people do not want to give you power?"
He said it was the Congress that was instrumental in making Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, the Prime Minister and the UPA rule had seen a Sikh as the Army Chief as also the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and the Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker.
Bansal said it was the late Rajiv Gandhi who was instrumental in arriving at the Punjab accord with Sant Longowal regardless of its consequences for the Congress.
He said the killing of Sikhs was a dark chapter which needed to be forgotten to help the nation and the community forge ahead in the task of progress and development.
