Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and advocate Harvinder Singh Phoolka on Tuesday warned the party against joining hands with the Congress, saying that he will quit the party if that happens.
Calling the Congress “perpetrators” of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Phoolka said that any alliance with the former would amount to giving them a clean chit in the case.
“I shall be the first person to quit the Aam Aadmi Party if and when it joins hands with the Congress (either) in a direct or indirect manner,” Phoolka said.
The noted lawyer, who has represented the riot victims in the court, opposed the Congress’ suggestion of coming together of opposition parties to form a broad-based alliance. Senior party leader P Chidambaram had, in the Congress Working Committee’s meeting, expressed the need for unity among the opposition members, which Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also supported.
Phoolka holds the Congress responsible for the riot that took place in the aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. The violence had led to the killing of 3,325 people. The former leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly said he would continue to fight cases of the riot victims.
