Quit as Punjab Poll In-Charge in Best Interests of Party, Says Kamal Nath

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath on Thursday said he quit as Punjab poll in-charge in the "interests of the party" and that he was not asked by his party leadership to do so.

In an interview to CNN-News18, Nath claimed that he stepped down as the Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party were playing politics by dragging his name into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"For 32 years nobody made a charge. In 2005 when the Nanavati Commission was formed, somebody complained and the Commission had cleared it. It also came up in Parliament in an adjournment motion which lasted for 8 hours and 17 minutes and nobody had mentioned it. Nobody every mentioned my name earlier, why all of a sudden my name has come up," Nath said.

He denied that Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked him to quit the post, adding that she understood the reasons he gave in his letter to the party to step down as in-charge of Punjab.

"I called Rahul Gandhi and told him I am sending the letter. I read him the letter. He told me to send it to the Congress President. I called Sonia Gandhi and told her that this is in the interests of the party and we should not let them use this politics," he said.

Kamal Nath said Sonia spoke to him again after she received the letter, and that she told him, "Well if this is your reason, fine."

Responding to a question on a letter reportedly written by his former Cabinet colleague MS Gill, Nath said he never raised the issue of 1984 riots with him when they were cabinet colleagues. Gill had described his appointment as akin to "rubbing salt on wounds".

Kamal Nath rejected suggestions that the Nanavati panel absolved him due to "lack of evidence" saying that the report should be read in its entirety.

When asked what he was doing at the Rakab Ganj gurudwara near Parliament House on the day of the riots, he said he went there after he was told that a crowd had gathered.

He said that policemen at the scene asked him to engage the crowd till reinforcements arrived."I left as soon as I saw the reinforcements arrive," he said.

(With additional information from PTI)