8.4.09

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The Congress should show that it's a party with a difference and not give tickets to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Actions speak louder than words and keeping the sentiments of the Sikhs in mind, the hand should try to heal the wounds of the community.

With the Lok Sabha elections less than 10 days away, the spectre of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots returned to haunt the Congress when a Sikh journalist lobbed a shoe towards Home Minister P Chidambaram at a press conference at the party headquarters to protest against the CBI’s clean chit to Jagdish Tytler, one of the accused in the riots case. While Chidambaram ensured that Dainik Jagran reporter Jarnail Singh was let off without any charge, the incident galvanised the entire political opposition — from the BJP and the Akalis to the Left and the JD(U) — to slam the Congress over tickets to Tytler and Sajjan Kumar. Aware of the potential political fallout in terms of the party’s prospects in Delhi and Punjab, the Congress is learnt to be “reconsidering” its decision to field Tytler from North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. In fact, after the CBI clean chit, several top Punjab Congress leaders are learnt to have requested Congress President Sonia Gandhi to “persuade” Tytler to “opt out.” Asked if the party would review its decision to give tickets to them, AICC spokesperson Ashwini Kumar said, “Congress is a large party and it takes considered decision at an appropriate time. Let’s see what solutions emerge in the future.” Sharma said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had termed the incidents after the assassination of Indira Gandhi as “unfortunate and shameful”. The shoe incident happened when Chidambaram was addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters. Jarnail Singh was sitting in the front row, barely yards away from the dais. When he asked why the CBI had given a clean chit to Tytler under pressure from the Home Ministry, Chidambaram replied: “CBI does not come under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Neither the Ministry of Home Affairs nor any other Ministry put pressure on the CBI. CBI has only given a report to the court. It is for the court to accept the report or reject the report or order the CBI to do further investigation. Let us be patient and let us wait for the court to take a decision on the report.” To this, Jarnail Singh said: “What about justice to the victims? It has been 25 years.” The Home Minister said this was not the forum for making political statements. It was at this point that the journalist hurled a shoe towards him saying “I protest”. As security personnel escorted Singh out, Chidambaram urged them to take him “gently, gently”. The Home Minister looked composed and said that an individual’s “emotional action in a fit of anger” should not “hijack the press conference”. Proceeding to field other questions, the Minister said, “I forgive him.” After being released, Singh said his manner of protest was wrong but he would not apologise. “I was not hitting him. I had no intention to hit him. I just wanted to protest and it happened... If I would meet him, I would say sorry to him. I have nothing personal against him,” he said later.
Singh was taken to the Tughlaq Road police station for questioning. “(The Home Minister’s) office informed us that the minister does not want to lodge a complaint against the journalist and does not want to take any action against him,” said a senior police officer. Singh was let off in an hour.

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