Jagdish Tytler as DPCC invitee: I am angry, but it is party's decision, Navjot Kaur Sidhu

Amritsar, Nov 1: Following the attack from SAD, BJP, and AAP over the inclusion of Jagdish Tytler in the list of the permanent invitees to Delhi Congress, Punjab Congress leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Monday said that the decision to include him was taken by the party.

"Personally I am angry. However, it is party's decision. I can't comment on it. Everyone is hurt but they can't say it because of party protocol," Congress leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu said in Amritsar.

The BJP leader had slammed the development and asked Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Congress' state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu to clarify if they had endorsed naming Jagdish Tytler as a permanent invitee to the Delhi Congress' new executive committee. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also lodged a strong protest over the issue.

"Tytler has been named as one of the key Congress leaders in Delhi, but he, Kamal Nath and Sajjan Kumar continue to be the blue-eyed boys of the party in spite of the fact that their role in the riots against Sikhs has been always highlighted by many witnesses," BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said.

"Sidhu had confessed that he barely escaped the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 and now he feels proud of being a leader of the Congress?" he added.

AAP alleged that Congress has never done justice to Sikhs and it should stop rubbing salt into the wounds. "This decision of the Congress high command has once again exposed the mindset of the Congress about the 1984 massacre (anti-Sikh riots)," AAP spokesperson Manwinder Singh Giaspura said.

"It is clear that the Congress can never give justice to the Sikhs, although the people of Punjab believed in the Congress many times after 1984. But the Congress has always betrayed the Sikhs and the Punjabis," Giaspura added.

SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema asked the CM to explain why he allowed the appointment of Tytler to a "prestigious" Congress panel.

"This proves that Channi does not have any moral courage and is even ready to sell off the interests of the Sikh community as well as Punjabis at large to save his chair. Punjabis will not forget this betrayal, he said.

Apart from Tytler, the list of permanent invitees included senior leaders JP Agarwal, Ajay Maken, Kapil Sibal, Janardan Dwivedi, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Subhash Chopra, and Tytler.

The Nanavati Commission had noted that Tytler "very probably" had a hand in organising attacks on the Sikh community in Delhi following ex-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination.