H Bula Devi
The Hindustan Times
September 04, 1999
Title: RSS decides to sue Manmohan Singh Author: H Bula Devi Publication: The Hindustan Times Date: September 04, 1999 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has decided to sue senior Congress leader and candidate from South Delhi parliamentary constituency Manmohan Singh for alleging the Sangh Parivar's involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Speaking to The Hindustan Times, RSS chief Prof Rajinder Singh, more known as Rajju Bhaiya, stated that the Sangh would file a defamation case against Dr Manmohan Singh for making a false statement. He said: "Like we did in the case of Sita Ram Kesri, a defamation case will be filed against Dr Manmohan Singh for his false statement." Prof Singh wondered why the Congress kept 'quiet' for last 15 years when cases against so many Congress leaders were going on in courts. "Why did the Congress not utter a word all these years? Why did they keep quiet?" he wondered. Taking a serious view of the Congress leader's statement, the RSS chief said that it indicated desperation in the Congress camp. "The Congress is desperate this time and that is why it is fabricating this kind of charges," he said adding they (Congress leaders) thought that nobody will contradict the statement. Lashing out at Dr Manmohan Singh for claiming that police records indicated RSS involvement in the riots, Prof Rajinder Singh wondered if the police records really indicated such involvement then why didn't the police start its prosecution for so long? Meanwhile, scores of 1984 riot widows today demonstrated against the Congress candidate's allegation. The agitationists even burnt an effigy of the candidate and expressed their surprise over the Dr Manmohan Singh denying the Congress's involvement in the riots. Lambasting the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) Delhi unit president Avtar Singh Hit stated that it was strange on the Congress leader's part to make this kind of a statement when there had been cases in the court against Congress leaders H K L Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler. He appealed to the Sikh community not to vote for Dr Manmohan Singh because he has betrayed the Sikh cause. Meanwhile the BJP today described as absurd Manmohan Singh's remark that the RSS was behind the massacre of Sikhs in 1984, calling it an insult to his own person. BJP general secretary Narendra Modi said nothing could be a bigger falsehood than this. More than 5,00 Sikh men, women and children were massacred by Congress mobs across the country after Indira Gandhi's assassination. He said in numerable FIRs, court petitions, newspaper reports and photographs exist to show that Congress hoodlums led by Congress leaders chasing Sikhs, setting them on fire and looting their homes. Mr Modi said senior Congress leaders were facing prosecution for their role in the 1984 incidents.
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