New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the 1984 Sikh riots could have been prevented had the then-Home Minister PV Narsimha Rao listened to IK Gujral’s advice.
Manmohan Singh was speaking at an event organised to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral on Thursday, December 5. Addressing the gathering, Singh said, “When the sad event of 1984 took place, Gujral ji that very evening went to the then Home Minister Narsimha Rao and said to him that the situation is so grim that it is necessary for the government to call the army at the earliest. If that advice would have been heeded, perhaps the massacre that took place in 1984 could have been avoided.”
Elaborating on his relationship with Gujral, Singh further said, “He (IK Gujral) was the minister of information and broadcasting and he had problems with some aspects of the management of emergency and then he was removed to the Planning Commission as minister of state. I was then an economic advisor with the ministry of finance…Thereafter our relationship grew.”
Despite only being the Prime Minister for a year (1997-1998), IK Gujral was revered for propounding the ‘Gujral Doctrine’ which was a series of principles that facilitated good relations between India and her neighbours.
Gujral passed away on November 30, 2012, due to multiple organ failure.
(with inputs from ANI)
