Monday, August 8 2005 17:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Accusing the Government of deliberately delaying the tabling of Nanavati Commission Report on anti-Sikh riots of 1984, Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) today (Aug 8, 2005) said the report and Action Taken Report were an eyewash aimed at protecting Congress leaders.

"The commission's report and the action taken report on it are an eyewash aimed at protecting senior Congress leaders," senior Akali leader and former Union Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said today.

He said 21 years have passed and nine inquiry commissions have submitted their report but none of the guilty of the riots have punished.

Sukhbir Singh Badal, son of SAD (Badal) President Prakash Singh Badal, said that the report and ATR betrayed the anti-Sikh attitude of the Congress.

Expressing unhappiness over the report the junior Badal, Dhindsa and other Akali leaders including Jora Singh Maan, Ratan Singh Ajnala, Bibi Paramjit Kaur and Sukhdev Singh Ribara shouted slogans against Jagdish Tytler.

BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) S S Ahluwalia took objection to the use of word riots to describe killings of Sikhs in the wake of assassination of Indira Gandhi saying that it was "genocide".

He said that the Nanavati Commission report has tried to exonerate those involved in the killings of thousands of Sikhs and wanted action against all those mentioned in the report.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself was a Sikh and the ATR of the Government on the report has dealt a blow to his image," Ahluwalia said.