CHANDIGARH: Sikh political and religious groups on Thursday rejected the apology made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that left hundreds of Sikhs dead in New Delhi and elsewhere.
The Sikh groups - led by Shiromani Akali Dal - said the apology from the Sikh prime minister was unacceptable and inadequate.
The Punjab Rights Forum called a protest day on Aug 15 against what it said was the ruling Congress party's "anti-Sikh stand".
It asked Sikh men to wear black turbans and women to adorn black 'dupattas' Aug 15 as a mark of protest. It also urged Sikhs not to celebrate Independence Day.
The groups demanded that the apology for the ghastly killing of innocent Sikhs - allegedly by Congress activists and leaders in the wake of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, should come from the Nehru-Gandhi family and particularly from Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Intervening in a discussion on the Nanavati Commission report on the riots in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh apologised to his Sikh community and the nation for the violence that some leaders of his Congress were accused of instigating.
"I have no hesitation in apologising not only to the Sikh community but to the nation because (the riots) negated the concept of nationhood," he said. "I bow my head in shame for what happened... but there are ebbs and tides in a nation's history."
But an Akali Dal spokesman said the prime minister's apology was misplaced since he was not even a primary member of the Congress when the killings took place in 1984.
Others who rejected the prime minister's apology included the Dal Khalsa and the Akali Dal headed by radical leader Simranjit Singh Mann.
They said the Congress had been shielding its leaders who got hundreds of Sikhs killed in 1984 and had been part of a conspiracy against the community.
The organisations said that Sikhs would never forget atrocities against them even if they forgave the perpetrators of crimes against them.
