'BJP twisting my words', says Cong leader Sam Pitroda on 'Hua toh Hua' remark

New Delhi, May 10: Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda started a controversy of sorts by brushing aside the 1984 anti-Sikh riots on Thursday, saying, "It happened in 1984, so what?"

The Congress leader was responding to the BJP claim citing the Nanavati commission report that the instructions for the violence came from former prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi after his mother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

According to ANI, a furious Pitroda told the news agency, "I don't think so, this is also another lie, and what about 1984? You speak about what you have done in the last five years. It happened in 1984, so what? (1984 hua toh hua). (Ab kya hai '84 ka? Aapne kya kiya 5 saal mein, uski baat kariye. '84 mein hua to hua. Aapne kya kiya?)

Pitroda later hit out at BJP for "twisting his words and distorting facts" to "hide their failures", while reaffirming that he had acknowledged the pain of Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"I have noticed how BJP is again twisting three words from my interview to distort facts, divide us and hide their failures. Sad that they have nothing positive to offer," Pitroda tweeted on Friday.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were massacred in the riots following the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October, 1984. On Thursday morning, BJP had tweeted: "It's on record of Nanavati Commission that probed the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the biggest genocide of India in which the government killed its own citizens, that instructions to kill came directly from the then PM Rajiv Gandhi's office. The country awaits justice for this karma".