Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today lashed out at the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for trying to misinterpret his statement about Jagdish Tytler vis-a-vis the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Moreover, he added, no court had so far held him guilty. “Nothing prevents me from speaking the truth no matter how unpalatable it will be for people like Mr Badal”, he asserted.Responding to Mr Badal’s statement that he had given Tytler the clean chit, Capt Amarinder retorted, “I don’t hold any court like Badal holds his durbars and Sangat Darshans but I have only stated what I heard during my visit to the riot hit areas and after meeting people there”. “Just because people like Badal will get annoyed with my speaking the truth does not make me shy away from speaking the truth”, Capt Amarinder said, while adding, “I have neither given any clean chit to anyone nor do I like to blame someone just because Badal blames him”."And you don't need to tell me to visit the victims and inquire about their plight", he told Badal, while adding, "I was among the first people to reach them there and then only unlike you who has always shed crocodile tears only"
Reiterating what he said during a TV interview on Friday, Capt Amarinder said, he immediately rushed to Delhi after learning about the riots there. He said, he alongwith his brother Raja Malwinder Singh and cousin Raja Randhir Singh went around the riot hit areas and talked to people.He disclosed that the riot victims named several people including HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Lalit Maken, Arjan Dass and some others. “But not a single person named Jagdish Tytler during our meetings with the victims”, he said, adding, his (Tytler’s) name came up only later during the parliamentary elections when Madan Lal Khurana blamed him for the riots for political reasons.Capt Amarinder who resigned from the Congress and the parliament after Operation Bluestar told Mr Badal that he should better check his own past. “I, unlike you, did not go and attend the bhog ceremonies of the terrorists”, he told Mr Badal while adding, “I have condemned the Operation Bluestar, the anti-Sikh riots and the killing of innocent Hindus dragged out of buses, houses and trains in the same vein”. But, he added, Mr Badal was yet to speak a word of sympathy for the victims of terrorism.