He resigned last night as in charge of Punjab, which goes to polls next year, in the wake of rivals targeting him on the issue of riots. “Why should these issues be diverted”, he said. Kamal Nath’s appointment was seen as playing the Hindu card which has supported Congress through trying times in the state.
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While party leaders in Delhi maintained that since Nath had been cleared of all charges there was no problem with appointing him in-charge of Punjab affairs, sources in the Punjab Congress said the move was seen as “insensitive” in a state where the 1984 carnage remains an emotive issue.
Asked about charges levelled by Phoolka, Kamal Nath said: “Where was Phoolka all these years?”
India Today reported that Dikshit maybe roped in for the post, after Kamal Nath handed over his resignation to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The G.T. Nanavati Commission was set up by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 2000 to inquire into the 1984 anti-Sikh violence that broke out in Delhi after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Similar intakes were in Vancouver, BC, where NRI Harry Brar, predicted the demise of Congress, with Kamal Nath’s Appointment, ” How can Rahul Gandhi be so blind on 1984, aftermath and sentiments of NRI’s”. “I left as soon as I saw the reinforcements arrive”, he said. By handing over the initiative to AAP, Congress runs the risk of ceding more political space to them.
At the regular Congress briefing on Thursday, party leader Anand Sharma also strongly backed Kamal Nath, who is now into his ninth term as member of Lok Sabha.
On his presence outside Delhi Gurdwara Rakabganj on November 1, 1984, Kamal Nath said he has never denied it.
Talking to media, Sharma dismissed suggestions that the Congress buckled under pressure to replace him and insisted that the “dishonest, perverse, and mischievous” narrative by opposition against him was done with an eye on elections. “You can not reopen which does not exist”, he said when asked about the AAP demand.
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The Congress had earlier dismissed the allegations against Kamal Nath, asserting that “the lie would be confronted with full force”.
