The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday criticized Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for including two party leaders accused of enticing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in his team to monitor the campaigning for polls in the national capital.
Terming him a 'failed captain' while expressing shock over the decision, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI here, "Rahul Gandhi has assembled a team for the Delhi elections. He is a failed captain and has assembled a team of failed lieutenants for attaining yet another failure in Delhi."
"But the matter of grave concern is that Gandhi has given place to both Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, who are complicit in the 1984 riots and who have cases against them as far as the Sikh massacre is concerned. What kind of message has been sent by the Congress?" he added.
Patra also pointed to an interview given by Rahul Gandhi, where the Member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi had admitted to lapses committed by Congress leaders during the 1984 riots, and questioned the morality of the inclusion of those controversial leaders.
"Instead of punishing the people who are responsible for the killing of the Sikhs, you are rewarding the people who are responsible for the killing of the Sikhs. And Rahul Gandhi in an interview had himself agreed that there were people who were responsible for the Sikh massacre of 1984," Patra said.
Apart from Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, who are accused of enticing violence in the 1984 riots, Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, Ajay Maken, Shakeel Ahmad and Haroon Yusuf have been named by Rahul Gandhi as part of a panel that will monitor the campaign for the Delhi assembly elections.
