BJP's Sirsa accuses Congress of 'playing both sides like 1984' as Singhvi slams lynchings

Taking affront at Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi's condemnation of the double lynching in Punjab, Akali Dal-turned-BJP leader Manjinder Sirsa on Monday, accused Congress of 'playing both sides'. Pointing out that Punjab was ruled by a Congress government, he questioned who had stopped police from taking action. Sirsa also made a major accusation claiming Congress was replaying the 1984 tactic - attack Sikh faith, enrage them, deny justice and kill them terming them 'terrorists'. Punjab goes to polls in February 2022.

Sirsa miffed over Singhvi's condemnation

"I saw his (Singhvi) tweet and he is playing both sides. Your party is ruling the state, it is your CM, police and your government's intelligence failure. Who has stopped you from taking action? You should not have let such an incident happen. You have not acted on people who have committed Beadbi (sacrilege). You are once again on the same line of Gandhi family in 1984 - attack Sikh faith, enrage them, deny justice and kill them terming them as terrorists," said Sirsa.

Singhvi: 'Take action on lynching'

Amid the political silence over the two lynchings in Punjab over sacrilege, Congress MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Sunday, termed it horrendous. He urged the Punjab police to take strict action against all who took law into their own hands. Two men have been lynched in the weekend over sacrilege in Amritsar's Golden temple and Kapurthala's Nizampur Gurudwara. Politicians from across the spectrum slammed the attempted sacrilege but remained mum on the lynching.

Kapurthala & Amritsar lynching

On Sunday morning, a man was  lynched to death for allegedly attempting to desecrate Shri Guru Granth Sahib in the Nizampur Gurudwara. Locals claimed that the man tried to escape after being caught by the Gurdwara authorities who handed over the alleged accused to Sikh outfits. In the visuals, the alleged accused was seen being tied up and thrashed to death by the officials. Later, Jalandhar IG GS Dhillon stated that they had not found any evidence of desecration of Nishan Sahib or the Guru Granth Sahib in Nizampur Gurudwara. The police further noted that the accused was lynched to death based on a video claiming sacrilege, but the police found no such evidence.

At 5:45 PM on December 18, an unknown youth attempted sacrilege in the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple. Caught on CCTV, the man is seen grabbing the golden sword (kirpan) and trying to grab the holy book before being stopped by SGPC officers. He was seen being dragged out of the shrine and later allegedly thrashed by enraged devotees. The police found no identification on the accused and a postmortem of the body is currently being done to ascertain his identity. An SIT has been constituted to probe the sacrilege.