‘It wasn’t a riot, it was a cold-blooded massacre’: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri slams Congress on 1984 anti-Sikh riots

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri sharply attacked the Congress on Friday, asking it to offer a public apology for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

Terming the incident as “one of the darkest chapters” in India’s post-Independence history, Puri said it was “not a riot but a cold-blooded killing of innocent people”.

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The petroleum minister alleged that Congress plays appeasement politics, while the BJP has helped minorities to flourish in today’s times. Escalating his attack on the Grand Old Party, he stated that Congress only reaches out to minorities to trigger them and then “does this (anti-sikh riots) to them”.

Tearing into the Congress party, Puri said that the Grand Old Party needs to undergo serious introspection on the events of 1984 on that particular day.

#WATCH | On his tweet on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri says, “…This day, going back to 1984, is one of the darkest. It was not a riot…It was a cold-blooded killing of innocent vulnerable people sitting in their homes. Those who were responsible… pic.x.com/SiAHykhb8u

— ANI (@ANI) October 31, 2025

Puri said, “Every minority community is flourishing today…BJP doesn’t play appeasement politics, Congress reaches out to minority communities, fuels them and then does this to them. I think the people in the Congress party today ought to do some serious introspection on the events of 1984 on that particular day.”

“It wasn’t a riot, it was a deliberate, cold-blooded massacre of innocent and defenceless people in their own homes,” Puri stated, recalling the 1984 anti-Sikh violence.

Today we observe the anniversary of one of the darkest blots in the history of independent India.
I shudder even now when I recall those days of 1984 when helpless and innocent Sikh men, women and children were mindlessly massacred, and their properties and places of worship… pic.x.com/AzIfxG5o1v

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) October 31, 2025

He alleged that those entrusted with upholding democracy and maintaining law and order had used official voter lists to identify Sikh households, mark them with charcoal, and then set them ablaze, pulling people out of their homes to be killed.

Calling it one of the darkest chapters in India’s post-Independence history, Puri questioned who was in power at the time, noting that it was a party that claimed to have made great contributions to the nation.

He said, “But this is also a party that rewrote the history of the freedom struggle and post-1947 India to glorify its own family.”

He claimed they denied leaders like Sardar Patel and BR Ambedkar their due place, and even failed to give proper credit to Mahatma Gandhi.

Puri’s comments came after he posted a tweet on the social media website X, where he recalled the 1984 anti-Sikh riots on the death anniversary of former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi.

He alleged that it was Congress that instigated the violence against the Sikh people. “I shudder even now when I recall those days of 1984 when helpless and innocent Sikh men, women and children were mindlessly massacred, and their properties and places of worship were ransacked by murderous mobs guided and led by Congress leaders and their cronies. All in the name of extracting ‘revenge’ for the dastardly murder of Smt Indira Gandhi,” he said.

“This was when the police were forced to stand as mute spectator even as Sikhs were being pulled out of their houses, vehicles and Gurdwaras and were being burnt alive. The state machinery was turned on its head. The protectors had turned to perpetrators,” he added.

Congress leaders paid tribute to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her death anniversary on Friday, recalling her fearlessness, patriotism, and spirit of service.

Indira Gandhi was the third and first female Prime Minister of India, serving from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984.