Kanhaiya Kumar slips on 1984 Delhi and 2002 Gujarat riots – makes it worse with silly clarification

March 29, 2016, NewsCrunch

JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar has come under strong criticism for saying the 1984 anti-Sikh riot was a mob-led massacre while 2002 anti-Muslim riot was state sponsored.

He also said emergency was not fascism. While emergency was caused by goondaism of members of one party, fascism is entire state machinery indulging in goondasim, a PTIreport quoted him saying at an event in JNU.  

Kanhaiya Kumar’s comments did not go down well even with those who have been his zealous supporters. Some slammed it as ignorance and some took it as sign of his proximity to Congress.

Senior journalist Seema Mustafa wrotea small piece in response to his remarks, showing how 1984 riots were also state sponsored.

Mustafa was on Delhiroads in 1984 reporting the Sikh massacre for the Telegraph.

She wrote that anti-Sikh violence was as state-sponsored as the Gujarat riots were. In the standard elements present in rioting - wild rumours, mob frenzy, vanishing act by police, there was little to differentiate between the two events, she said.

Kanhaiya Kumar made it worse by tweeting a silly clarification – the riots were different as they were separated by 18 years, he contended.

He did not address the key point in the PTI report that quoted him saying 1984 riots were not state sponsored. It was also not clear what he wanted to say with the clarification.

Kanhaiya clarifies 1984 remark