Sonia Gandhi’s book attempts to give her family clean chit over 1984 anti-Sikh massacre: BJP

BJP leader Harvinder Singh Phoolka said that the book’s account, which was in “complete contradiction of the official record”, wrongly attributed the delay in deploying the Army to General A.S. Vaidya. | Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (November 10, 2026) alleged that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, through her book, attempted to shield former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress leadership from responsibility for the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre.

At a press briefing, senior BJP leader Harvinder Singh Phoolka said: “In the book that Sonia Gandhi has published, she has tried to give her family a clean chit over the massacre of Sikhs.” He alleged that the book’s account, which was in “complete contradiction of the official record”, wrongly attributed the delay in deploying the Army to General A.S. Vaidya.

“First, as per the Misra Commission’s report, 6,100 soldiers were available in Delhi on the night of October 31 and the morning of November 1, but they were not deployed in time. The Commission also wrote that if 5,000 of these soldiers had been made to march through Delhi’s streets on the morning of November 1, at least 2,000 Sikhs could have been saved. Both the Misra Commission and the Nanavati Commission made the same point in their reports,” he said.

“The Misra Commission says that even if Rajiv Gandhi had alerted General Vaidya, the Army Chief’s job is only to keep the Army ready, while administrative officials are responsible for calling in the Army and deploying it in the field. The administrative machinery neither called in the Army in time nor deployed it,” said Mr. Phoolka.

“Rajiv Gandhi was the country’s Prime Minister at the time. If he was not directly responsible himself, what action did he take against those who failed to mobilise the Army present in Delhi on the morning of November 1? Instead, at his first public rally, Rajiv Gandhi said: ‘When a big tree falls, the earth shakes a little.’ In this way, he tried to justify the entire massacre,” he said.

Union Minister Giriraj Singh accused Ms. Gandhi of being selective in expressing grief over incidents such as Babri and Batla House, but not over the Godhra and Pahalgam incidents. He said her book should have addressed what he described as former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s mistakes, including Tibet and Articles 370 and 35A.

BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari alleged that the book reflected the Congress’s “vote-bank politics”, which would lead to another electoral defeat for the principal Opposition party in 2029.

Published - November 10, 2026 09:06 pm IST