CHANDIGARH: Union minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday attacked the Congress, accusing it of not delivering justice to the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots and said it was the BJP government which put the guilty behind bars.
Irani also hit out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly supporting those who gave the slogan of "dividing the country" and said voting for the party means voting for those who want to divide the country.
Addressing a gathering in Ludhiana, Irani said the Congress, when it was in power at the Centre, failed to ensure justice to the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
"When it comes to justice, who can forget 1984 riots? For 30 years, those who lost their own family members waited for justice. They kept waiting for the punishment for those who were involved in it," she said.
The minister asked the Congress why it could not send those who were involved in 1984 anti-Sikh riots to jail.
"For 30 years, the justice, which the Congress could not deliver, was delivered by the BJP government," she said.
She said 300 cases were reopened and chargesheets were filed and added, "Those leaders who stood shoulder to shoulder with the Gandhi family after the riots are today behind bars."
Irani accused Gandhi of supporting those people who gave a slogan of dividing the country.
She further said that is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament that Congress' situation is such that it has become the leader of the 'tukde tukde gang'.
Without naming Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, she said the Congress gave the command of its state unit to a person who hugged the chief of the enemy army.
She was referring to the 2018 incident when Sidhu had courted controversy by hugging Pakistan Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during his visit to Pakistan for the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan as the prime minister.
Taking a jibe at Sidhu, she said, "His dreams of becoming the leader (Congress's chief ministerial face) were shattered by his own leaders."
The Congress had declared Charanjit Singh Channi as its chief ministerial candidate for the coming state assembly polls.
Sidhu was also the contender for becoming the CM face.
Apparently referring to the process of declaration of the CM face, she said, in the Congress party, a "special family" chooses who is to be the leader (CM face).
"They (Congress leaders) consider a family as their party," she said.