AAP Rakes Up A Kamal Nath Controversy As Punjab Politics Hots Up
New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has hit out at the Congress for appointing senior leader Kamal Nath as its general secretary in charge of Punjab, where assembly elections will be held early next year.
AAP’s HS Phoolka today resurrected allegations that Mr Nath was involved in Delhi’s anti-Sikh riots after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984.
Mr Phoolka presented at a press conference, an affidavit that he said was signed by the senior Congress leader acknowledging before a commission of inquiry his presence outside a Delhi gurdwara which was attacked and where two people were killed on November 1, 1984.
“He says he was trying to save people that he was sent by Rajiv Gandhi…If Kamal Nath was trying to save people, why did he let two Sikhs burn to death,” said Mr Phoolka, who has led a campaign for years demanding justice for the victims of the 1984 riots.
Kamal Nath has linked AAPs attack to what he called a fading campaign in Punjab. “For the last 21yrs there has been nothing wrong, no one made any allegations. I had a clean chit from the Nanavati Commission appointed by a BJP government,” the Congress leader said, adding, “Arvind Kejriwal is raising this issue because he is losing out in Punjab…we will fight this politically.”
The allegations against Kamal Nath were examined by the Nanawati Commission of Inquiry and the US-based Sikhs for Justice had filed a complaint against Mr Nath demanding that he be prosecuted when he visited Switzerland in 2013.
His appointment to manage the party’s affairs through the Punjab elections came a day before Congress vice president landed in the state and attacked the Akali Dal-BJP government over the growing problem of drug abuse, highlighted recently by the controversy over the censorship of the Bollywood film “Udta Punjab”, which is based on the subject.
The Congress sees a chance to make a comeback in Punjab after 10 years of Akali rule and is using the drug menace at the core of its election campaign in the state. So is the Aam Aadmi Party, which has turned the Punjab elections, traditionally a direct fight between the Congress and the Akali Dal, into a three-sided contest.
