New Delhi: India’s Ministry of Home Affairs and the Aam Aadmi Party government is Delhi are accusing each other for no progress into probe of November 1984 Sikh massacre by Special Investigative Team (SIT) formed few months back.
Where as MHA come down heavily on the Arvind Kejriwal led AAP government in Delhi for not providing adequate staff to the special investigative team (SIT) to re-investigate the November 1984 massacre related cases, the Arvind Kejriwal’s government also accused the Central government that it had failed to keep it’s promise to pay enhanced compensation to victims/ survivors of the Sikh genocide 1984. Delhi government has reportedly earmarked Rs 10 crore from its own budget to pay enhanced compensation to the kin of victims of the 1984 Sikh carnage.
![Arvind Kejriwal (L) - A File Photo of November 1984 Sikh Massacre (C) - Rajnath Singh (R) [File Photos]](https://sikhsiyasat-en.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Arvind-Kejriwal-L-A-File-Photo-of-November-1984-Sikh-Massacre-C-Rajnath-Singh-R-File-Photos.png)
The SIT had been given six months to complete its work, including filing of chargesheets in more than three-decade-old cases.
The SIT, headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, has Rakesh Kapoor (a retired district and sessions judge) and Kumar Gyanesh (Delhi police’s additional deputy commissioner) as members.
MHA joint secretary writes to AAP’s Delhi Government:
In a letter to the AAP government, Rakesh Singh, a joint secretary in the Union home ministry, said that more than two-and-a-half months had passed since the constitution of the SIT, but the team was not able to move forward for want of required manpower.
The letter said the officers had held a meeting in his chamber and information related to it had been circulated well in advance. MHA joint secretary Rakesh Singh said that the meeting was attended by the city government’s additional secretary (home) and he was briefed about the requirements of three prosecutors for the SIT, for which he had assured that necessary action would be taken immediately.
MHA joint secretary said that considering the huge mandate assigned to the SIT and the crucial time which had already elapsed, he was requesting the AAP government to once again look into the matter and provide the requisites for the SIT within a week.
The BJP-led NDA government’s move to set up an investigation into Nov. 1984 related cases was announced just before the polls to the Delhi Assembly. The AAP, which swept the elections, had earlier termed the setting up of the SIT as a “poll gimmick” by the BJP.
Effectiveness of SIT remains under question:
The newly-appointed SIT is 12th such panel formed by the Indian state to “re-investigate” the brutal massacres of the Sikhs carried out in Delhi during first week of November 1984.
Notably, Sikhs were subjected to genocidal violance in India during November 1984. Thousands of Sikhs were massacred in a series of organised massacred through India. Past commissions and inquiry panels have failed to punish the guilty and impart justice to the victims. As the genocide was planned and carried by High-ups in Indian state and the then government of India, the inquiry panels proved merely eyewash. Given the past experience there are little expectations of justice form the SIT as it’s effectiveness remains under question.