A few days after Congress leader Deepender Hooda was intensely criticised by his party colleagues for praising the controversial figure, three BJP MPs have now come under fire for visiting his house to offer condolences. The controversies around the death of 1984 Sikh riots convict Sajjan Kumar have claimed three new victims — this time on the opposite side of the political spectrum.
The former Congress leader had been suffering from health issues such as high blood pressure and Parkinson’s disease. Some Haryana Congress leaders, including Hooda, were quick to condole his death, and were chastised owing to Kumar’s chequered past and the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. Sajjan Kumar, 80, died earlier this month while serving his life sentence for killing five men during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
“They shouldn’t have gone,” the BJP chief said.
Sajjan Kumar was a former Congress MP. “Now the real face of the BJP has also come to the fore. On the occasion of Sajjan Kumar’s final bhog, three BJP Members of Parliament were present.
He became a Lok Sabha MP in 1980, winning the election from the Outer Delhi constituency on a Congress ticket. Even after the 1984 riots, he was elected twice on Congress tickets – in 1991 and 2004.
These included West Delhi MP Kamaljeet Sehrawat, South Delhi MP Rambir Singh Bidhuri, and Northwest Delhi MP Yogender Chandolia,” said AAP leader Baltej Pannu.
It is for this reason that several Congress leaders, including former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, slammed Hooda.
