NEW DELHI: Hitting out at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the Shiromani Akali Dal said on Thursday during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister people were "rewarded" to kill, terrorise and humiliate Sikhs in the country.
The comments come after the Congress president said that her husband got a massive poll mandate in 1984, but did not use it to create an atmosphere of fear, threaten and scare people or destroy institutions.
Referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, SAD's national spokesperson Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleged, "No action was initiated against Congress leaders Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler and others who incited people and executed plans to eliminate Sikhs".
He said before levelling any allegations at the BJP-led government, Sonia Gandhi should remember that during Rajiv Gandhi's government from 1984 to 1989 "persons were rewarded to kill, terrorise and humiliate Sikhs in the country".
Appreciating Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dispensation, of which SAD is also a part, Sirsa said those who had "tossed the turbans" of Sikhs in the national capital now have to face music.
He said gone are the days when nobody would speak against "butchers of Sikhs", leave aside action against them.
Addressing an event marking Rajiv Gandhi's 75th birth anniversary, Sonia said, "In 1984, he (Rajiv Gandhi) won an unprecedented mandate, but did not use that power to create an atmosphere of fear or threaten and scare".