Minister resigns over role in 1984 anti-Sikh riots

An Indian minister at the centre of a political storm over bloody anti-Sikh riots in 1984 has resigned but the government remains under fire and is likely to push more riot-tainted politicians to leave, analysts said yesterday.

Sikh leaders still seething 21 years after nearly 3,000 Sikhs were butchered in New Delhi planned renewed street protests and parliamentary attacks on India's ruling Congress party.

"People named in the riots should not be allowed to resign. They should be dismissed, arrested and prosecuted in special courts so an example is set," said Sukhvir Singh Badal, leader of the opposition Sikh Shiromani Akali Dal party.

Jagdish Tytler, minister for expatriate Indians, quit Wednesday after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, himself a Sikh, promised action against those named in the Nanavati Commission report that probed the carnage.

"To make things easier and so that embarrassment is not caused I resigned to party president Sonia Gandhi and to the prime minister," said Tytler, who has denied any involvement in the riots.

The party was roundly blamed for the riots that erupted in the national capital and other cities within hours of the October 31, 1984 assassination of then-Congress premier Indira Gandhi by two Sikh guards at her official home.

Analysts said the Congress, which currently heads a left-leaning coalition government, is likely to face pressure from within the party and from its allies to rid itself of other leaders fingered by the Nanavati Commission.

"The situation is more complex now as the Congress is working with allies and there is pressure on it to take cognizance of the (commission's) report," said Gurpreet Mahajan, political analyst at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"The second element is that the Congress had been demanding action against rightwing Hindus for the (anti-Muslim) riots in Gujarat state three years ago and so now it has to show that action should be taken every time such things happen," she said.

"It will be easier to deal with the others, and so one can assume that more heads are now likely to roll," Mahajan told reporters.

Other prominent Congress leaders named by the commission include a sitting MP and two influential party members including a city leader who is reported to have gone underground since the report was released.