Delhi poll campaign heats up as BJP targets Congress, AAP

The campaign for Delhi polls has picked up with the BJP targeting the Congress by taking up the report of a Special Investigation Team headed by retired justice SN Dhingra on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and the AAP for the “delay” in executing the death penalty in the Nirbhaya case.

BJP leader and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here on Thursday that the Dhingra panel report makes it clear that the Congress was least interested in ensuring justice for the victims of the riots.

Javadekar, citing the report, said it was not a riot but a “worst kind of genocide” targeting Sikhs. He said only one FIR was filed on more than 500 cases of murder near Sultanpur and one Investigation Officer was assigned to probe all those cases. He said the Centre will deliver justice to Sikhs and has already told the apex court that there will be action based on the panel’s recommendations.

He said the reason for police inaction and escalation of violence was a statement by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and alleged that Congress leaders such as Sam Pitroda still justify the violence. “The SIT report shows that the hands of the Congress are with murderers,” he said. “The Congress never took any interest in the probe. In fact, it did the exact opposite and protected the accused,” he added.

Nirbhaya case

On the Nirbhaya case, Javadekar said, the AAP government took more than two-and-a-half years to serve notice to the convicts after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal against the death sentence in 2017. “Had the AAP government acted swiftly, the culprits would have been hanged by now and the nation would have got justice,” he said.

BJP responsible for delay: AAP

Denying the charge, the AAP said the BJP is spreading a lie. “Whatever delay is taking place, the BJP is responsible and that is why instead of misleading people, the Union Minister should apologise for ignoring such a sensitive matter,” AAP leader and MP Sanjay Singh said.

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