Answering a question at a media conference in Punjab’s Ludhiana today, India’s ‘Press Conference Prime Minister’ Manmohan Singh charged that “some people want to keep the 1984 anti-Sikh riot issue alive apnee dukaan chamkane ke liye (for their selfish interests)”. He said that this was of “no profit to either the country or the Sikh community”.

Manmohan Singh’s this statement exposes his tendency of using different yardsticks for 1984 Congress driven anti-Sikh riots and 2002 Gujarat riots. When he says some people keep 1984 Sikh riot issue alive for their selfish interests, he should not forget that along with his party and whole pseudo-secular vote-bank brigade, he himself also is keeping 2002 Gujarat riot issue alive for his selfish interests of rescuing his Prime Ministership and running his dukaan.

In a press conference at Mumbai last month when a question was asked about Gujarat’s development, this same Manmohan Singh to run his vote-bank ki dukan had said no one can claim that Gujarat could be called a developed state since around 1,200 were “butchered” there (After DeshGujarat and it’s readers protested this statement massively online, Manmohan Singh in his Ahmedabad speech sang a different song for damage control and said that the nation is proud of Gujarat’s development adding that it is because of central government’s funding).

Manmohan Singh in his Ludhiana press conference also said that keeping 1984 Delhi Sikh riots issue alive is of no profit to either the country or the Sikh community. If Manmohan singh genuinely feels so, he and his party should also understand that same applies to 2002 Gujarat riots as well. It is of no profit to either the country or the Muslim community.

When passing any derogatory remark on the state of Gujarat, Mr. Manmohan Singh should not forget that Gujarat is a prime state of this country and he is just a puppet Prime Minister without any significant foot print and would be forgotten in coming years like Indra Kumar Gujral or V.P.Singh.

1984 vs 2002

When Indira Gandhi was killed by Sikh security guards in 1984, Congress party cadres went on a killing spree in Delhi, murdering 3,000 Sikhs. According to data tabled in Parliament, the 2002 toll in Gujarat was 790 dead Muslims, 254 dead Hindus, and 223 people missing. Far more were killed in Delhi in 1984. Gujarat riot broke out after Muslims killed more than 50 Hindus by burning them alive in a train. Delhi riots broke out after one individual was assassinated. The Hindu casualties in 2002 were a quarter of the total, suggesting two-way violence. But no Congress cadre rioter died in Delhi in 1984 anti-Sikh riots, so it looks much more like a pogrom. Around 190 people were killed in police firing in Gujarat riots, of whom slightly over half were Muslims. Yet, in 1984 there was no police firing at all on Congress mobs. The Congress messengers of death co-opted the police more thoroughly. So, on virtually every parameter you can measure, 1984 was worse than 2002.