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Tytler affair: Message for the political class |
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The way in which the Congress was forced to withdraw two of its Delhi candidates – Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar- from the Lok Sabha elections in the national capital territory Delhi is a significant victory for public opinion. The Congress over the years had been ignoring demands for keeping out the two ‘‘gentlemen” from the electoral process on the ground of ‘winnability’, their ability to defeat their rivals in their constituencies, where they obviously had support among some sections of the people. This time also, the Congress had decided to put them up for the elections and was hopeful that they would make it back to the new Lok Sabha.
But the shoe gate changed all that, when on Tuesday, April 7, a Sikh journalist, Jarnail Singh, threw his shoe in the direction of Home Minister P. Chidambaram at a news conference on not getting satisfactory replies to his queries regarding the CBI’s clean chit to Jagdish Tytler in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case. The CBI had taken the unprecedented step of releasing a press note giving the summary of its plea to a Delhi court for closure of the case, even though the plea had not been taken up by the court yet. It indicates that there was an “unholy” hurry to give a clean chit or publicise a clean chit for Tytler before the polling for the Lok Sabha in Delhi on May 7.
The effort boomeranged. Even before Jarnail Singh flung his shoe at Chidambaram, opposition was building up to the clean chit given by the CBI to Jagdish Tytler. And, after the shoe throwing episode, there was no stopping of the display of public anger over the failure to punish the guilty in the 1984 riots in which over 2000 people were killed. Agitations over the issue spilled over to states like Punjab and Haryana where the Sikhs have a sizeable presence. In Punjab, angry people stopped rail and road traffic at several places, resulting in disruption of people’s movement.
Politically, the fallout promised to be even more damaging for the Congress. The party was hoping to make a come back in Punjab and bag most of the Lok Sabha seats from the state in the elections. But with the Akali Dal and the BJP getting hold of an issue to criticise the Congress on an emotive issue, the Congress hopes looked like being dashed to the ground.
In the event, the Congress high command acted quickly and decided to pull out Jagdish Tytler as well as Sajjan Kumar from the electoral race. While the move is welcome, it may not meet the needs of the situation fully. What people expect is effective action to bring to book the guilty in the 1984 riots, even though twenty-four years have elapsed. The spontaneous way in which protests followed the shoe throwing episode show that public memory, though short, is not so short in reality.
The development is a lesson not only for the Congress, but also for other parties. The BJP especially needs to do some introspection on the role played by its governments in Gujarat and at the Centre at the time of the 2002 post-Godhra riots in which over a thousand people, mostly Muslims, died. The Supreme Court has already ordered re-investigation of several incidents during the riots, which were not properly probed by the Gujarat police and authorities. There are also elements in the political establishment in Gujarat, who may be involved in the riots. The BJP would do well to take another look at the role of such people in the sad incidents of 2002 and take remedial steps.
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