Chidambaram comes out in support of Rahul Gandhi for anti-Sikh riot comment

Chidambaram, who is on a visit here, said former prime minister Manmohan Singh had apologised in Parliament as had former party chief Sonia Gandhi for the "terrible thing" (anti-Sikh riots) that took place when the Congress was in power.

Rahul Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the UK, had told an audience of UK-based parliamentarians and local leaders in London on Friday that the incident was a "very painful tragedy", but disagreed with the view that the Congress was involved.

Chidambaram said, "Congress was in office in 1984, nobody is denying that. A very terrible thing happened in 1984 for which Dr Manmohan Singh has apologised in Parliament. We are not saying that the Congress is absolved. Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi has also apologised and on numerous occasion, some of us have also said what happened in 1984 was a terrible thing."

"Now, you can't hold Rahul Gandhi responsible for that - he was 13 or 14 years of age then... He has not absolved anyone. What Rahul Gandhi has said is there is on the AICC website. The full text is there you can have a look at it, please read it," the former finance minister said.

Rahul Gandhi had also said he was "100 per cent" for the punishment for those involved in any violence against anybody. 

"I have no confusion in my mind about that. It was a tragedy; it was a painful experience. You say that the Congress party was involved in that, I don't agree with that. Certainly there was violence, certainly there was tragedy," he had said.

On Rahul Gandhi comparing the RSS with radical Islamist outfit Muslim Brotherhood, Chidambaram asked reporters to go through the full text of the speech.

On criticisms by the BJP on Rahul Gandhi commenting on the country's internal issues on foreign soil, he said these questions should be first asked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"You should have asked this question when Narendra Modi had addressed a huge NRI gathering at Maddison square in the US. Did you ask this question?" Chidambaram said. 

BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi had said that the Congress president had demeaned Indian culture and called him an immature politician.

Leave aside leading the country, Gandhi is even incapable of heading a political party, he had said.