Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral on Monday raised the matter pertaining to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Rajya Sabha.
Speaking during Zero Hour, Gujral demanded that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should withdraw the statement made following the motion in the Ontario Assembly terming the riots as “genocide”.
This led to protests from the Congress with its leader Anand Sharma demanding that Gujral calling the riots a state-sponsored genocide, in Parliament be expunged.
Deputy Speaker PJ Kurien said he would expunge the words, if necessary, after going through the record.
The Ontario Assembly recently became the first legislature in Canada to carry a motion that described the riots as genocide.
India termed it “misguided”, as the motion was moved by a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) belonging to the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario, which had voted down a similar motion last summer.
“We reject this misguided motion which is based on a limited understanding of India, its constitution, society, ethos, rule of law and the judicial process,” said MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay.
The Akali Dal is a partner of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre.
Expressing unhappiness over the Centre’s response to one of Canada’s provincial Assemblies’ (Ontario) resolution describing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide”, Anandpur Sahib MP Prem Singh Chandumajra on Monday demanded that the statement of the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs should be withdrawn forthwith. Raising the issue during Zero Hour Chandumajra said, “If the 1984 carnage was not genocide, then what it could be called.”
Evoking former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, the MP from Punjab said they had already termed the massacre as “genocide”.
“I demand from the Government of India to withdraw the statement issued by the spokesperson of the foreign ministry rejecting the Ontario Assembly resolution terming the riots as genocide,” he said.
Immediately after the Ontario resolution New Delhi had termed it “misguided”, as the motion was moved by a Member of Provincial Parliament or MPP belonging to the ruling Liberal Party of Ontario, which had voted down a similar motion last summer.
