The Congress could have avoided triggering Sikh anger by heeding the advice of prime minister Manmohan Singh.
The Congress could have avoided triggering Sikh anger, which threatens to derail its poll prospects in Delhi and Punjab, by heeding the advice of prime minister Manmohan Singh.
DNA has learnt that Singh had advised the party not field Jagdish Tytler, accused of inciting violence against Sikhs in 1984, for the 2009 Lok Sabha poll.
The prime minister had dropped Tytler from his cabinet in August 2005 after the Nanavati commission found “credible evidence” of his involvement in the riots.
That Singh didn’t want Tytler to get a ticket is unlikely to make the party’s task easier as it sits to decide the fate of the Delhi strongman and Sajjan Kumar, co-accused in the riots.
Sikh groups continued their protests in Punjab and Delhi on Wednesday, a day after a journalist lobbed a shoe at home minister P Chidambaram to protest against the CBI clean chit to Tytler.
Activists of the Sant Samaj, comprising seminaries like the Damdami Taksal and organisations like the Dal Khalsa, squatted on railway lines near Ludhiana, Beas in Amritsar and Dakoya in Jalandhar on Wednesday, delaying several trains.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who returned to the capital on Wednesday night, has summoned her poll managers to decide on the course of action.
Some senior leaders feel that the party should wait till Thursday for the trial court to take a decision on the CBI’s report exonerating Tytler. However, there is also a contrary view that the party should nominate somebody like reputed Supreme Court lawyer KTS Tulsi as its candidate in place of Tytler from the Delhi North-East constituency.
The Congress leadership is concerned that the Sikh anger may harm its prospects not only in Delhi but also in the 13 seats in Punjab. Prior to the upsurge of Sikh emotion over the CBI’s clean chit to Tytler, the Congress was banking on winning at least 8 seats in Punjab. The equations are changing fast now.
The party’s Punjab unit has advised the central leadership to deny Tytler a ticket or risk facing a backlash from the Sikh community.
The Congress leadership is under tremendous pressure to also drop Sajjan Kumar. Though the Nanavati commission had indicted both Tytler and Kumar, the trial court had not found enough reason to reopen the case against Kumar. The court ordered the CBI to reinvestigate the case against Tytler.
But some Congress leaders said the party must make a clean break with such elements or risk public censure. “These are basically thugs who have entered the public domain,” said one senior party leader who did not wish to be named. “We must get rid of them at the earliest.”
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