A memorial for Sikhs killed during the 1984 riots has been constructed by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) here as a “reminder of injustice” towards the victims.
Called “The Wall of Truth”, the structure has been built in an area of 2500 sq mt and at a cost of Rs 2.25 crore at the Gurdwara Rakabganj Sahib Complex near Parliament. It will be thrown open to the public on January 15.
“The widows of the victims will lead the event that will be attended by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal,” General Secretary, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.
“The memorial has names of thousands of Sikhs killed in the carnage and people from other communities who laid down their lives trying to save them etched on its walls. We have also given space to the observations of different panels which were set up by the government to probe the riots,” he said.
The decision to build the memorial had come in 2013, close on the heels of acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was facing allegations of perpetrating the riots, by a Karkardooma court in April that year. The construction work had begun in November 2014.
Sirsa, who is also the national spokesperson of Shiromani Akali Dal, said the DSGMC fought a long battle against the previous UPA government for making the memorial a reality.
“Congress was dead set against the construction of the memorial. It even moved court against it. Also, the Sheila Dikshit government had in November 2012 scuttled our efforts to name a park in Punjabi Bagh to commemorate the killing of innocent Sikhs,” he said.
Sirsa rued that the judiciary has “not been able to put the perpetrators of the massacre behind bars.” “The courts delivered justice in the cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
But the anti-Sikhs riots are a blot on the judiciary,” he alleged. He said the DSGMC chose the venue, just a stone’s throw away from Parliament, “to remind the government of its failure to do justice to its people.”
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