Author: Report
Publication: The Free Press Journal
Date: July 22, 2002
Virtually rebutting opposition's
view that Gujarat Assembly polls should not be held now as many people
were still in relief camps, National Commission for Minorities' Vice Chairman
Tarlochan Singh on Sunday said, parliament elections were held in the country
within 45 days of the anti-Sikh riots in 1984.
Without directly referring to Gujarat,
Singh told PTI, "Polls were held in the country within 45 days of the carnage
in which thousands of Sikhs were killed. About four lakh Sikhs migrated
to Punjab from Delhi and other parts while thousands were in relief camps."
"But at that time, neither the human
rights organisations or the media or the Election Commission even thought
that the priority at that time was to rehabilitate the riot-affected because
the Sikhs were considered insignificant," he said.
Singh was responding to a question
on the NCM's view on the elections to the Gujarat Assembly.