Despite the prime minister's apology, the Bharatiya Janata Party took exception on Friday to the "silence being maintained" by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the Nanavati commission report and demanded that she too apologise to the nation for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
"With the prime minister's apology, the resignation of the ministers and the virtual withdrawal of the action taken report, it has been proved that Congress was fully involved in the riots but it is surprising that Sonia Gandhi did not consider it appropriate to utter even a word," BJP Parliamentary party spokesman V K Malhotra told reporters in New Delhi.
Recalling the Congress chief's sit-in in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue in Parliament complex after the Gujarat riots, he said, "her silence on the anti-Sikh riots, even five days after the tabling of the action taken report, is baffling."
He also wanted the Congress to tell the nation as to why after approving the ATR, the government changed its stand and virtually withdrew it, and secured the resignation of the people indicted in the report.
"We would like to know who wanted to save the minister initially and why it was later decided to re-examine the cases," he said.
