Lawyer HS Phoolka attacked former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for 'justifying' the killing of innocent Sikhs in 1984. (Press Trust of India file photo)
Accusing former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of 'justifying' the killing of innocent Sikhs in the 1984 carnage, lawyer HS Phoolka along with BJP secretary RP Singh today came together to demand that Bharat Ratna given to the former Prime Minister be taken back.
The two leaders also released the video of the speech delivered by Mr Rajiv Gandhi this day on 1984 at Boat Club on Indira Gandhi's birth anniversary where he had made the remarks that "when a big tree falls, the earth shakes", an apparent reference to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
"A Prime Minister who justifies the killing of innocent citizens, definitely does not deserve Bharat Ratna. We therefore call upon the government to withdraw the Bharat Ratna conferred upon Rajiv Gandhi," Mr Phoolka said addressing a press conference.
"A Prime Minister who takes three years even to count the dead bodies of innocent citizens killed in open broad daylight in the capital, a Prime Minister whose party was responsible for a massacre, cannot be a Bharat Ratna. We demand Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna's be taken back," he said.
BJP leader Singh and Mr Phoolka said that it was difficult to get the video of the speech as the same was deleted from the records and archives of Doordarshan and it was retrieved with much difficulty.
To a question on his sharing the platform with a BJP leader, Mr Phoolka said, "We would try and involve all others for the cause and to help get justice to the victims of the 1984 carnage".
He named leaders like Brinda Karat, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, who have helped for the cause of Sikh victims of 1984.
The two were accompanied by another lawyer Tejinder Singh, whose family has suffered in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
Mr Phoolka said 31 years ago on this day, the then Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi had justified the killing of 3,000 innocent citizens of the country and failed to provide justice to the victims.
The huge crowd, whom Mr Rajiv Gandhi was addressing at Boat Club, applauded this justification of Mr Gandhi by clapping, he said, alleging that this crowd mostly comprised of workers and leaders of Congress who had indulged in the killing of the Sikhs just two weeks earlier.
Mr Phoolka also accused Mr Gandhi of rewarding the leaders whose names prominently figured in the killing of Sikhs and named Jagdish Tytler and HKL Bhagat in this regard, who were made ministers and were rewarded with an elevation.
"Rajiv Gandhi government did not even register cases. For Rajiv Gandhi government, thousands of these Sikhs killed meant nothing. He didn't even bother to count the dead bodies of these innocent citizens. His Home Minister gave statement in Parliament on November 14 that only 650 Sikhs are killed throughout the country.
"On November 17, Atal Bihari Vajpayee released a list of 2,800 Sikhs killed in Delhi alone. The Congress called Vajpayee anti-national. It took Rajiv government three years to finally come out with official figure of 2,733 Sikhs killed in Delhi," he said, adding that the video-footage of Mr Gandhi's speech is being played after 31 years.