1984 riots and drug abuse are two blots on Punjab's soul, says BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday that two "blots" stain Punjab's soul — the wounds of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the damage caused by drug addiction — and that neither can heal without "uncompromised justice".
Mr. Prasad was speaking at a day-long conclave in Punjab organised by the State unit of the BJP to mark the 1984 riots. The event was titled "Zakhm 84 De", or "The Wounds of 1984".
"Two deep blots stain Punjab's soul today — '84 ke zakhm and 'chitte di peeda' [the agony of drug addiction]. These wounds cannot heal without uncompromised justice," he said.
The riots broke out in Delhi and other cities after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Official figures put the death toll at about 2,900, the majority of them Sikhs; civil society groups have said the number was higher. Over the decades, several commissions of inquiry have examined the violence, and a Special Investigation Team was constituted in 2015 to reopen cases that had been closed.
In December 2018, the Delhi High Court convicted former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar of murder and conspiracy and sentenced him to life imprisonment; he resigned from the party. Several other cases arising from the violence remain at different stages in the courts.
Mr. Prasad criticised the Congress, alleging that it had "never cared" for those killed in the riots and had instead sought to shield a handful of its leaders. He said convictions in the cases had followed only after the Narendra Modi government set up a Special Investigation Team and acted on the recommendations of an inquiry commission. He did not spell out which recommendations were enforced or name the commission.
He also referred to a Congress rally held in Delhi on November 1 and a party event planned in Punjab on November 5, describing them as an attempt to rub salt into the wounds. No response from the Congress to his remarks was available at the time of publication.
On drug addiction, Mr. Prasad described it as a wound that had damaged a generation in the State. Successive Punjab governments have identified drug abuse as a serious public health challenge, and national surveys have reported opioid use in the State at levels well above the national average. Ruling parties and the Opposition in Punjab have repeatedly traded blame over the response to the crisis.
Punjab BJP president Kewal Singh Dhillon said, "The community that forgets its past forgets its future. We have neither forgotten 1984 nor will we allow it to be forgotten."
The conclave is part of the BJP's effort to expand its base in Punjab. The party contested the 2022 Assembly election on its own after ending its decades-long alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal.
