Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said justice to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which were “politically motivated”, started being delivered only after the Narendra Modi government assumed office in 2014.
Addressing a programme of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee here, Shah said 300 cases related to the 1984 riots were reopened and compensation of Rs 5 lakh was given to the family of each of the victims after 2014.
“No one can forget the riots of 1984 and such heinous killings were politically motivated. No one was punished in those riots until the Modi government assumed office. No one was arrested and no one spent a single day in jail till 2014,” he said.
Shah said probe commissions were set up, but no concrete results ever came from them.
Prime Minister Modi established an SIT and re-opened 300 cases, leading to the imprisonment of the guilty, he said.
The home minister said cases are still ongoing and the Modi government will ensure justice for the victims.
The home minister said that after so many years, the process of giving compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the 3,328 victims was done by the Modi government.
He also said that the Modi government opened the way to give citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act to Sikh sisters and brothers who were tortured in neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Paying glowing tributes to the Sikh gurus and the Sikh community, he said the Sikhs move forward taking both religion and karma equally and when it is an issue of sacrificing one’s life for religion, a true Sikh never looks back.
He said that from the days of independence struggle to the security of the country now, the sacrifice of Sikh brothers is unparalleled.