Sajjan Kumar, Tytler asked not to sit on main dais at Congress fast against communalism

NEW DELHI: The 1984 anti-Sikh riots cast its shadow over the Delhi Congress' daylong fast against caste violence and communalism with Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, listed as accused for their alleged role in the riots, being made to stay away from the main dais, party leaders said.

While a Congress leader said on anonymity that Tytler and Kumar were asked not to sit on the stage, the party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP was seeking to create a controversy where none existed.

The dais was reserved for AICC members, former ministers of the Congress government in Delhi and sitting MPs, a leader said.


Other leaders sat on mats close to the main stage at Rajghat, the venue of the symbolic fast being led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. The party's units across the country are holding similar fasts today.

A senior Congress leader, requesting anonymity, added that Tytler and Kumar were asked to stay away. Kumar left the venue after that.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken was seen talking to Tytler, who sat on the floor. Tytler, however, told reporters later that he was not asked to leave the stage or the venue.

"Some conspirators in BJP see meaning in everything," Surjewala said.

Tytler and Kumar are charged with having a role in the riots in the aftermath of prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.