New Delhi: Hours after Youth Akali Dal leaders blackened the statue of Rajiv Gandhi in Ludhiana, Punjab Congress leaders rushed to ‘purify’ it with milk.
Demanding revocation of Bharat Ratna bestowed on the late prime minister, the SAD workers used black spray paint to desecrate Gandhi’s bust on Tuesday, following which the members of the grand old party cleaned it with milk.
Condemning the vandalism, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said, “I have asked police to identify the guilty and take strict action.” He also demanded an apology from Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal for the “obnoxious act”.
Strongly condemn vandalisation of Rajiv Gandhi's statue by @Akali_Dal_ workers in Ludhiana. Have asked Police to identify the guilty & take strict action. @officeofssbadal should apologise to people of Punjab for this obnoxious act.https://t.co/vh1F12KgEo
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) December 25, 2018
The Delhi Assembly had also recently passed a resolution demanding that Bharat Ratna awarded to Rajiv Gandhi be withdrawn over the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which it termed as a “genocide”.
The House directed the government to impress upon the MHA that it should take all important and necessary steps to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws, as recommended by the Delhi High Court in its landmark judgment sentencing Sajjan Kumar and other convicts to life imprisonment.
A former Congress MP, Sajjan Kumar, has quit the party following his conviction in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that followed the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party and the government following his mother’s demise, was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award, in 1991.