Haryana Rohtak BJP Padyatra: Nabin and Saini Demand Congress Apology for 1984 Sikh Riots

The Bharatiya Janata Party organised a ‘Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao’ padyatra in Rohtak, Haryana, on Sunday, 1 November 2026, led by the party’s national president Nitin Nabin. The march began at the Chhotu Ram Polytechnic Institute and concluded at Bapu Park, outside the residence of former Haryana chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary joined the march, while the BJP’s Haryana in-charge Smriti Irani and state president Dr Archana Gupta were among those present.

Addressing the gathering, Nabin launched a sharp attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress-led INDIA bloc, which held a rally in Delhi the same day. He said the Congress should have apologised to the Sikh community for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots instead of taking to the streets in protest. He argued that holding a protest on the anniversary of the riots showed insensitivity towards the Sikh community.

Nabin recalled the controversial remark attributed to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984, when he reportedly said that when a big tree falls, the earth shakes. Nabin said Rahul Gandhi should have felt remorse and apologised for the violence that followed, in which more than 3,000 Sikhs were killed across India, rather than leading protests against the government.

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini amplified the demand in a post on X on 1 November. He wrote that the day was not meant for demonstrations but for penance and an apology for the 1984 Sikh massacre, and said the people wanted accountability for that injustice rather than street protests. Saini’s message directly linked the Delhi rally to the anniversary of the 1984 violence.

Nabin also accused the Congress of wanting democracy to run according to the wishes of the Gandhi family, and claimed that an atmosphere of chaos was being deliberately spread across the country. He said Rahul Gandhi was acting at the behest of foreign powers, a charge the BJP has repeatedly levelled against the opposition leader during the ongoing confrontation over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

The Rohtak march was part of the BJP’s nationwide counter-campaign against the opposition’s Delhi rally, with similar marches held in other states. BJP leaders used the Rohtak platform to defend the electoral roll revision exercise and to press the Congress on its record on the 1984 riots, an issue the party has raised on every anniversary of the violence. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh had apologised in Parliament in 2005, calling the riots a negation of the concept of nationhood, but the BJP maintains that the Gandhi family itself has never directly sought forgiveness.