Congress backs Rahul's stand on 1984 riots

Gandhi in his interview had said that while the Gujarat government was "involved" in the 2002 riots, the Congress government had tried to stop the anti-Sikh riots

A day after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s first television interview which has been panned by critics, the Congress was on the defensive and stated, “even his harshest critics will agree with his sincerity, honest, passion and commitment to change”.

The Congress also backed Gandhi’s comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi had apologised countless times for the “terrible” events. The Congress bolstered Gandhi’s stand, alleging that 2002 riot cases had to be transferred out of Gujarat and “there has been no apology”.

Gandhi, in his interview, had said while the Gujarat government was "involved" in the 2002 riots, the Congress government had tried to stop the anti-Sikh riots. Opposition BJP and Akali Dal have hit out at Gandhi for his remarks contrasting the Gujarat riots with the anti-Sikh riots.

Singhvi stressed, “Criminal law does not make a distinction between common people and the leaders of political parties... 482 convictions took place in the 1984 riots. The political career of a number of very senior Congress leaders was affected (because of the riots). Apart from apology, there has been a reconciliation for the last 20-30 years.”

Contrasting this with the BJP state government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of the 2002 riots, he said, “The striking feature is that there has been no apology. Moreover, there has been en masse transfer of 2002 related trials from Gujarat to Maharashtra which is the clearest vote of no confidence in the Modi government.”

Hitting out at Modi, Singhvi said, “He (Gandhi) is quite unlike a number of persons in our political system, who aspire for big office but are habituated to speaking with a forked tongues, who are self- centred and have illusions of infallibility.”