Congress party's recent accusation of BJP indulging in communal violence reminds me of this passage from Khushwant Singh's Autobiography. I am reproducing it in my own words based upon recollection from my memory.
On the morning of 31st October, 1984 Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India was assassinated by her own Sikh body guards. Khushwant Singh who once used to be close to her family, especially to her younger son Sanjay Gandhi, but later fell out of her favor after Sanjay's death in an air crash, wanted to visit her place to pay his last respect, in spite of their estrangement.
When he was about to leave he got a call from a well wisher (I have forgotten the person's name) - "Sardarjee (as Sikhs are addressed), Have you lost your mind ? Don't ever dare going out now. The goons of Congress are dragging Sikhs out of vehicles, roasting them alive. They are going to make a Sikh Kabab (roast) out of you".
Needless to say, the hired goons of HKL Bhagat (An East Delhi Mafia) and goon troika of Lalit Maken, Jagdish Taylor and Sajjan Kumar - all HONORABLE MPs of the time, were directly accused of conniving and complicity in the riots against hapless Sikhs who have no connection with Indira's killers except sharing their religion.
Thousands of Sikhs were killed and maimed in the following days. Estimates vary - from the government issued figure of 2800 to the independently assessed number 8000. All said and done, many hardened criminals were released from jails in full police protection. Scores were armed with iron rods and Kerosene oil.
Excited with the handouts of 100 rupee notes (had a decent purchase value then) and fueled by bottles of liquors alleged supplied by Sajjan Kumar and Lalit Maken (Father of the present Congress politician Ajay Maken who was a baby when his parents were mowed down by Sikh gunmen months later for his dad's involvement in anti-Sikh riots in Delhi), they went on rampage, destroying life and property of Sikhs they came across.
This is not the sole example. Our great Congress party, espousing soft Hindutva has a history of involvement in several large scale killing of Muslims. The following ones come on top of my mind, though I am sure of many more such incidents taking place under the auspices of our Grand Old Party who gave us freedom.
1983 - Nellie massacre in Assam (3000 killed)
1987 - Maliana near Meerut (50 Muslim youths picked up from their homes and killed by the UP police)
1989 - Bhagalpur in Bihar (1000 killed).
Congress was in power in both at the Center and the above states during these pogroms of Muslims.
BJP is no lily white, but it sounds utterly hypocrite when Congies like Digvijaya Singh and Ajay Maken whose father incidentally handed out 100 rupee notes and liquor bottles as prize to teach the Sikhs a lesson, are accusing BJP of resorting to Communalism. This is nothing but a classic case of Kettle calling the pot black.
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