New
Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the anti-Sikh
riots in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination were like a
"dagger that pierced through India's chest."
Speaking
at the "Run for Unity" to mark Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's
birth anniversary - seen as the BJP government's attempt to recast a
day traditionally marked as Indira Gandhi's death anniversary - PM
Modi said, "Our own people were murdered, the attack was not on
a particular community but on the entire nation. It was like a dagger
pierced through India's chest."
Over 3,000 people, mostly
Sikhs, were killed after then prime minister Indira Gandhi was shot
dead by her own Sikh bodyguards at her home in Delhi. The killing was
linked to Mrs Gandhi's decision to sanction "Operation
Bluestar", or the storming of the Golden Temple to flush out
Sikh militants hiding there.
Allegations that the Congress
tried to protect its top leaders accused of leading mobs against
Sikhs have been a recurring theme in the BJP's campaigns against the
UPA.
"
It is unfortunate that on the birth anniversary of
the man who dedicated his life in uniting the country, a tragic
incident took place 30 years ago that shook the country and left it
deeply scarred," PM Modi said.
In what many in the
Congress see as an "insult", there was no one from
the central government at Indira Gandhi's memorial Shakti Sthal today
for a tribute organized by Sonia Gandhi, her daughter-in-law and
Congress president. (read:Modi
Government absent at Indira Gandhi's memorial)
PM Modi had
tweeted his tribute in the morning, saying, "I join my fellow
countrymen & women in remembering former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi on
her Punya Tithi (death anniversary)."
President
Pranab Mukherjee and Vice President Hamid Ansari were the only
dignitaries to join the homage for Indira Gandhi, besides Congress
leaders including Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leaders say
it is the first time that Indira Gandhi's death anniversary was
marked without any state patronage.
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Published: October 31, 2014 11:11 IST
