Three words - 'huwa toh huwa' - taken out of a soundbite of Sam Pitroda compelled the Congress to issue an explanation in the context of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots after Narendra Modi and the BJP's leading lights gunned for the technology entrepreneur and policy maker who is part of Rahul Gandhi's team.
The Pitroda video was on some Twitter handles yesterday. On a reporter's question, Pitroda was commenting on a BJP allegation that the anti-Sikh riots after Indira Gandhi's assassination had the backing of the PMO in 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister.
Pitroda dismissed this allegation as a lie. 'Arre aap toh roj jhooth bolte rehte yaar. Aaj hamare pe jhooth bola, kal aap pe jhooth bola. Aur aap log jhooth promote karte rehte hain (you tell lies every day. Today, the lie is about me, tomorrow it will be about you. And you (journalists) promote these lies),' he said.
After this, Pitroda seemed to lose his cool a bit. As if speaking directly to Modi, he said: 'Ab kya hai 84 ka? Baat toh kariye aapne kya kiya paanch saal mein. Uska baat kariye. 84 huwa toh huwa. Aapne kya kiya (Now what about 84? Tell us what you did in the last five years. Talk to us about that. What happened in 84, happened. What did you do).'
This morning, 'huwa toh huwa' was all that was heard.
In a bite given to ANI this afternoon in Rohtak, the Prime Minister tarred the Congress with the Pitroda soundbite. He said the comment was not about the thinking of one person, this was about the Congress mindset. 'Woh teen shabd the huwa to huwa… huwa toh huwa. We can understand the arrogance of Congress in these three words,” he told the rally.
Pitroda, going by his Twitter posts, was in Punjab on May 8. His Twitter timeline shows he was at the Jallianwala Bagh memorial and the Golden Temple that day. The video bite appeared on social media the following day.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said Pitroda's words were 'insensitive and inhuman'. 'Thousands of Sikhs were killed on the roads of Delhi and when that issue is raised, then Sam Pitroda, who is a veteran politician, reacts as 'huwa toh huwa'. 84 doesn’t mean anything to them,” he said.
The Congress, which released a statement hour's after the Prime Minister's reaction, said: 'Violence and riots are unacceptable and unpardonable in our society.' The party, the statement said, had stirved to give justice to the 1984 riot sufferers. Any remark made to the contrary, 'including Shri Sam Pitroda is not the opinion of the party'.
In 2005, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had apologised for the anti-Sikh riots in Parliament, an unparalleled gesture by any government. 'I have no hesitation in apologising to the Sikh community. I apologise not only to the Sikh community, but to the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood enshrined in our Constitution,” he had said.
Pitroda, born in a Gujarati family in Odisha, was known to be close to Rajiv Gandhi, whom the Prime Minister recently called 'Bhrashtachari Number 1'. He explained this evening that his Hindi was not too good and he had wanted to say 'jo huwa bura huwa'. He said the party had taken some words out of the context and twisted it.
This is not the first time this election season that Pitroda, who is the chairman of the Overseas Indian National Congress, has faced political heat because of his comments. In March, during an interview to news agency ANI, he asked for proof of the success of the Balakot airstrikes, and the BJP quickly pounced on this to make election hay.
