Capt counters PM on ’84 riots, says it wasn’t terrorist act

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 22

Two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of perpetrating the 1984 riots and called it an act of “terrorism”, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh countered his statement saying “it was absolutely not an act of terrorism”.

The Chief Minister said he disagreed with the analogy given by the PM. “Modi says all sorts of things. Don’t listen to it. These are signs of his desperation,” he said.

Modi had called the 1984 riots as terrorism in response to backlash against the BJP for picking Malegaon blast case accused Sadhvi Pragya as its candidate from Bhopal. Capt Amarinder, who has already been tweeting on the issue, today said, “She is a terror suspect. What type of people they are picking? Her case is still going on. It’s not over yet.”

On a parallel drawn by the PM against the Congress on the issue of Sadhvi Pragya, Capt Amarinder said, “I resigned in 1984 and came back in 1994. I was not a terrorist. No one who was involved in 1984 was taken. If someone has been taken now, I don’t know.”

‘N-threat irresponsible’

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement on the country’s nuclear arsenal was “highly irresponsible”. Responding to PM Modi’s remark that “the nuclear weapons have not been kept for Diwali”, Capt Amarinder said, “It is a very unfortunate thing for a responsible leader of a nation to say. By saying that the nuclear arsenal we have kept is not for Diwali, he means that it could be used. This is a highly irresponsible statement by the PM.”

Pointing out that unemployment rate was at an all-time high, Capt Amarinder ridiculed Modi’s promise of “achhe din”, saying, “Acche din us din aange jis din ehnan da bhog payega (good days will come only when their rule is brought to an end).”

Flaying Modi for the alleged politicisation of the armed forces, the Chief Minister said the forces were not Modi’s personal property and any government of the day would have done what he did in the wake of the Pulwama attack. “Everyday Army and paramilitary personnel are dying in the line of duty, and yet the PM has the audacity to take credit for their actions,” he added.