New Delhi: AICC President Rahul Gandhi is no stranger to controversy as every time he speaks, he stirs up a new one, the most recent being on Friday, August 24 when he said that the Congress party was not involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

This statement from the Congress president came as a response to a query by CNN-News18 about the anti-Sikh riots when he was at an event in the United Kingdom Parliament. “I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy, it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don’t agree with that. Certainly, there was violence, certainly there was tragedy,” he said.

During the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed, mostly in the national capital when the Congress party was in power at the Centre. The riots were triggered by the assassination of the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Some Congress politicians, including Sajjan Kumar, have been accused of leading the killer mobs. They have denied the allegations.

Rahul said that he was against any form of violence against anyone as he knows how it can affect a person. “I am a victim of violence and I understand what it feels like,” he said.

The BJP and the Akali Dal did not take kindly to Rahul’s statements about the riots and asked why Manmohan Singh apologised for the riots if the party was not involved. Adding to this, former Punjab CM and an Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, while speaking to reporters on Saturday, asked why one of the accused in the riot case, Jagdish Tytler (a politician with the Congress party) was removed from ministership.

On August 25, former finance minister and senior leader of the Congress party, P Chidambaram came to Rahul’s defence saying that Dr. Manmohan Singh had apologised for the riots that happened in 1984. “Rahul Gandhi cannot be held responsible for that. He was only 13 or 14 at that time,” the former minister said in Rahul’s defence.

The party also released a statement, in the fallout of Rahul’s statement, which claimed that the question was “planted.” The statement that was issued on Friday read: “Responding to a planted and hostile question which contained a sweeping statement that Congress party was criminally involved in the 1984 riots, Rahul Gandhi said that that’s a wrong statement. Congress party was not criminally involved in the riots. What happened was very sad-it was very unfortunate. Congress party has condemned the incident and our leaders have condemned what happened and we stand with those who suffered in the riots. We believe that the perpetrators must be punished.”

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was recently formed as ordered by the Supreme Court to investigate over a hundred cases relating to the anti-Sikh riots. Reportedly, Retired Justice Dhingra will be heading the SIT.

With inputs from IANS