Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Monday said the Gujarat government was "actually abetting and pushing" the 2002 riots and the difference with the 1984 riots was that during the anti-Sikh riots the then Congress government "was trying to stop the killing" while Narendra Modi's government was "allowing" it to happen.
In an interview to TIMESNOW news channel, Gandhi also acknowledged that "some Congress men were probably involved" in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Though he was asked by channel anchor and Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami if he would apologise for the riots in which more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi, Gandhi veered away from the topic.
Asked by Goswami if the Congress leaders accused of involvement in the riots had been delivered justice, the Gandhi scion said that "there is a legal process through which they have gone through".
"The difference between the 84 riots and the riots in Gujarat was that in 1984 the government was trying to stop the riots. I remember, I was a child then, I remember the Government was doing everything it could to stop the riots. In Gujarat the opposite was the case. The Government in Gujarat was actually abetting and pushing the riots further. So there is a huge difference between the two things, saying that innocent people dying is absolutely wrong," he said.
Asked by the anchor to explain how he could say that the Modi government was "aiding and abetting the riots" since the court has given him a clean chit, Gandhi said: "I mean it's not me...it's the large number of people who were there, large number of people who saw actively the Government of Gujarat being involved in the riots."
"I mean, people saw it. I am not the person who saw it, your colleague saw it. Your colleagues told me," he told Goswami.
Asked if the journalists had actually seen the riots, Gandhi said: "They saw the administration actively attacking minorities."
Asked to explain, the Congress vice president said:"I am saying that there was difference between the 1984 riots and the riots in Gujarat. The difference was that the Government in 1984 was trying to stop the riots, trying to stop the killing whereas the Government in Gujarat was allowing the riots to happen."
Prodded further if he would apologise or express regret if someone asked him to, Gandhi said: "First of all I wasn't involved in the riots at all. It wasn't that I was part of it."
Asked by Goswami if he would apologise on behalf of the Congress party, he said "Frankly I was not in operation in the Congress party."
