AAP demands Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Ratna be withdrawn

As AAP is going to join ‘mahagathbandhan’, it is their pressure tactics to have upper hand over Congress or just an eyewash

The Delhi Legislative Assembly on Friday demanded that the county’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, be withdrawn from late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for his comments which sought to “justify” the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Capital.

Terming it a genocide, the Assembly passed a resolution to ‘impress upon’ the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take ‘all important and necessary steps’ to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws.

The resolution, which was moved by Tilak Nagar Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Jarnail Singh, further sought to direct the Delhi government to ‘strongly convey’ in writing to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs that justice continued to elude the families of the victims of the ‘worst genocide in the history of India’s national capital.’

The demand to recall the honour from the late Prime Minister for his remark “…whenever a big tree falls the ground shakes a little…” was made by AAP Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti during the discussion on the issue prior to the reading of the resolution by Mr. Singh who added the demand towards the conclusion of the resolution.

“This House directs the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi to impress upon the MHA that it should take all important and necessary steps to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws, as recommended by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in its recent landmark judgment sentencing Sajjan Kumar and other convicts to life imprisonment,” the resolution, which was unanimously adopted, stated.

The House further resolved to set up special fast track courts for ‘quick and time bound trials’ in all pending 1984 riots cases citing the natural deaths of many victims and the fact that the many of the remaining were in the ‘advanced stages of their lives.’