New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said justice was meted out to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots victims after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014, news agency PTI reported. Addressing an event organised by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee in the national capital, the union minister said as many as 300 cases related to the riots were reopened and compensation of Rs 5 lakh was given to the family of each of the victims after 2014.
"No one can forget the riots of 1984. No one was punished in those riots until the Modi government assumed office. Many inquiry commissions were formed but did not yield results. But Modi formed SIT, reopened 300 cases and started sending those who were guilty to jail,” PTI quoted Amit Shah as saying. He further said the families of 3,328 victims have got the compensation.
Shah also said that under Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the Modi government has provided citizenship to the Sikh people who wanted to come to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Paying tributes to the Sikh community, the minister, as quoted by PTI said, “I bow my head to the Guru tradition of the Sikh religion. Guru tradition of 10 generations of Sikh Panth has set before the world an excellent example of struggle and sacrifice against injustice and barbarity before the invaders.”
Invoking the contribution of the 9th Guru Teg Bahadur, the union minister said, “his supreme sacrifice against the atrocities of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb on the people in Kashmir shows his greatness.”
Amit Shah also spoke about the tradition of empowering women in the Sikh religion and said it began with the teaching of Mata Khivi's langar years back.
“From the fight against the rule of the Mughals to the movement against the British and the struggle for independence and even now, the Sikhs have always been at the forefront in making the supreme sacrifice to secure the borders of the country,” the union minister said.