By IANS,
New Delhi : Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday said Sikhs had a “legitimate grievance” that a few people had been punished for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots but assured the community that “no one in the government is trying to whitewash anything”.
Chidambaram told the CNN-IBN television channel: “The Sikhs have a legitimate grievance that not enough people have been punished. But some people have been punished.”
Asked about his message to the Sikh community, the home minister said: “Law has to take its course. Those who have been charge-sheeted… some will be punished, some may be acquitted because of technical reasons but to the best of my knowledge, no one in the government is trying to whitewash anything.”
A Sikh journalist Tuesday flung a shoe at the home minister during a press meet at the Congress headquarters expressing his anger over the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) exoneration of senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler for the riots.
“I am not a judge. I am not a court. It is improper for me to pronounce anyone guilty or innocent,” Chidambaram said.
Asked if the Congress would continue with Tytler as its candidate for the North-East Delhi constituency, he said: “I cannot answer this question.”
About reporter Jarnail Singh of the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, Chidambaram said it was an “emotional outburst by one journalist and he has quite rightly regretted it. As far as I am concerned, it is over.”
The home minister said he was “hundred percent sure” there was no question of revamping his security in view of the shoe-throwing incident. “One PSO (police station officer) is one too many,” he said.