New Delhi: With a controversy surrounding his three-day-old appointment, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath on Wednesday night quit as party in-charge of poll-bound Punjab in view of a “canard” regarding the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
He wrote a letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi who immediately accepted his resignation and relieved him of his charge as party General Secretary.
Nath, who was appointed as the General Secretary in-charge of Punjab as well as Haryana only three days back, said in his letter to Gandhi, “I request that I may be relieved of my charge (of Punjab) to ensure that the attention is not diverted from the real issues facing Punjab.”
The former Union Minister said he was “hurt by the developments of the past few days wherein an unnecessary controversy has been created around the tragic 1984 riots in New Delhi.”
His step came as Akali Dal, BJP and AAP had kept up attack on him and the Congress over his alleged role in the anti-Sikh riots which followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi.
Describing his appointment as ‘sprinkling of salt on wounds’ of Sikhs, the three parties were set to rake up the issue in the run up to the Assembly polls slated next year.
Kamal Nath insisted that there was not even any public statement, complaint or FIR against him till 2005 in the riots case and that he had been absolved by the Nanavati panel set up by the previous NDA government.
