Chandigarh, August 21: The BJP has launched a scathing attack against the Congress leadership, demanding an official clarification after Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda hailed convicted 1984 anti-Sikh riots figure Sajjan Kumar as a nationwide role model.
The fierce political backlash follows the death of the 84-year-old Kumar, who died at Safdarjung Hospital following complications from Parkinson’s disease and high blood pressure. Hooda’s decision to term Kumar’s death a major loss to the country’s political landscape instantly drew sharp condemnation from rivals, who accuse the Congress of maintaining a long-standing pattern of shielding individuals complicit in the 1984 tragedy.
“Sajjan Kumar and his associates carried out attacks against Sikhs and their families in Delhi during the violence,” BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu alleged, while demanding that both the Delhi and Punjab units of the Congress immediately clarify their stance. Bittu further claimed that the Congress leadership actively protected Kumar for decades until a major political shift occurred in 2014.
The ruling party’s offensive directly highlighted the grueling legal battle led by senior lawyer H S Phoolka, which eventually stripped Kumar of his political immunity. Kumar’s legal shield collapsed in December 2018 when the Delhi High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in the Raj Nagar violence. Proving that his legal troubles followed him to the end of his life, a Delhi court handed him another life sentence in February 2025 for the brutal Saraswati Vihar double murder of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh.
In a bid to blunt the BJP’s aggressive political momentum, Punjab Congress leaders spent Friday attempting swift damage control. Both Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Raj Kumar Verka issued public statements declaring that the innocent victims of the riots must always come first.
“Kumar has been held accountable and punished for his actions,” MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla said, attempting to pivot the party away from Hooda’s comments. Aujla insisted that the party’s true position is to stand side-by-side with the grieving families.
