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Shocking attempt to shift blame from Rajiv Gandhi: SAD

Chandigarh: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday said he was "deeply pained and disappointed" with Manmohan Singh's comments on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and alleged that it was "a shocking attempt to shift blame" from then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

At an event on Wednesday, former prime minister Singh had said that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots could have been avoided if the then home minister P V Narasimha Rao had heeded the suggestion of calling in the Army.

In a statement here, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief said, "Relevant government records clearly show that the decision against Army deployment was taken at a meeting held at the residence of Rajiv Gandhi."

Singh's claim is "neither true nor appropriate", Badal said.

"It is shocking because it comes from Manmohan Singh whom we have always genuinely respected. It is inappropriate and indecorous as it involves two former prime ministers, P V Narasimha Rao and I K Gujral, neither of whom is alive to respond to this claim. It is intriguing why Singh kept quiet on this all those years when Rao and Gujral were around to confirm or deny this claim," he said.

The SAD leader said Singh's "statement, however, clearly vindicates our stand that the independent India's worst and most tragic massacre could easily have been averted had then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi allowed the Army to be called in time to deal with a crisis of unimaginable and unprecedented magnitude".

Speaking at an event on Wednesday to commemorate former Prime Minister I K Gujral, Singh had said that Gujral had told Rao to bring in the Army to contain the raging anti-Sikh violence after then PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

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