Manmohan Singh shares stage with Sajjan Kumar in Delhi, sparks anger

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh finds himself in the middle of another controversy on Saturday when he shared dias with former Lok Sabha MP Sajjan Kumar, an accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, sparking a massive outrage.

A senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said that Mr Singh and Mr Kumar attended the first meeting of the newly-elected Delhi Congress unit. “Both the leaders are the newly-elected delegates. They came had come to attend the first meeting,” he said. This has come as major embarrassment to the Congress.

In July, the Delhi high court had sought the response of Mr Kumar to a plea seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to him by the trial court in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) appointed as many as 280 new delegates who would vote in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) elections reportedly to be held next month. Besides, Mr Singh, senior party leader Janardhan Dwivedi was also made one of the delegates.

During the meeting, the Congress leaders also passed two resolutions that AICC vice president.

Rahul Gandhi should take over as AICC president and that the AICC president and vice-president should elect the new DPCC.

All the newly elected delegates endorsed both the resolutions by raising their hands. Former DPCC president Ms Tajdar Babar read out the first resolution regarding election of the DPCC chi-ef. The second resolution was read out by former DPCC president Prem Singh who proposed that Mr Gandhi should take over as the AICC chief.

Addressing the meeting, DPCC president Ajay Maken said that it was a matter of pride for the party that Mr Singh had been elected as a DPCC delegate.