Lesson for Congress Party and all parties connected with inciting riots

The Times of India,
11 April 2009

Editorial

Shadows Of The Past

The Congress has done well to drop Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from its list of candidates for the upcoming general elections. Public reaction, particularly in Punjab and Delhi, which the party seems to have failed to foresee, and its possible impact on elections, have forced the party to withdraw the candidature of the two sitting MPs who are accused of involvement in the anti-Sikh riots in the capital in 1984.

Clearly, a CBI report exonerating Tytler's alleged role in the riots was badly timed for the Congress. Tytler and his party may have expected that the clean chit from a central agency would remove any taint on the candidate. It backfired. Coming on the eve of the elections, the response of the Sikh community was so widespread and intense that it could not be ignored. The protests may have been politically motivated, as alleged by Tytler and others, but a perception that justice was not fully done after the '84 riots has prevailed in society. A quarter century after the massacres took place in the capital the official death toll was 2,733 only 13 people have been convicted in six cases. Masterminds, who organised the killings, have so far escaped conviction. The many commissions that investigated the riots have not been conclusive or convincing in their findings and have only fuelled mistrust.

Perceptions matter in politics. It is necessary for all Congress leaders to be in the clear on the '84 riots, especially since the party claims that secularism is a defining feature of its core ideology. Its battle with the principal opposition, the BJP, is largely centred on the treatment of religious minorities. The party's secular claims sound hollow when tested against its record in the anti-Sikh riots. So, it is politically important for the Congress to make sure that justice is delivered, and perceived to be so, to account for culpability in the '84 riots. The party ought to keep politicians who are yet to clear their names in a court of law from running for public office until a closure is achieved in the riot cases.

There is a lesson in this episode for all political parties. They can't ever assume to evade their past. Democracy has a way of making citizens accountable for their actions. It is best for politicians and parties to confront their failings and seek remedial action in legitimate forums with the utmost transparency.