Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and senior advocate H.S. Phoolka on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, mounted a sharp challenge to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's account of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, describing it as 'another attempt to build a fake narrative.' Phoolka's remarks were directed at Sonia Gandhi's recently released memoir, 'Belonging: A Journey of Love', which he declared 'factually incorrect' in its depiction of the violence that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The Core Dispute: Who Incited the Violence?

At the heart of Phoolka's rebuttal is Sonia Gandhi's claim that Hindus were provoked into retaliatory violence after learning of Indira Gandhi's assassination on 31 October 1984. The BJP leader flatly rejected this framing. 'She has tried to show that Hindus were provoked after coming to know of the assassination of Indira Gandhi. This same narrative was attempted by the Congress in 1984,' Phoolka said.

He went further, asserting that the BJP has established 'on record' that the violence was not a spontaneous Hindu backlash but was instead orchestrated by the then-ruling Congress party using government machinery. 'Hindus didn't kill Sikhs, rather it was the Congress, the then-ruling party, which used government machinery to massacre the Sikhs,' he said.

Challenging the Timeline of Riots

Phoolka also took direct aim at Sonia Gandhi's claim that 'by the afternoon, rioting had broken out in different parts of the city and beyond' on 31 October 1984. He challenged her to cite a single incident from that afternoon in New Delhi, arguing the first targeted attack came later in the day.

'The President was the first Sikh to be targeted in Delhi, that too around 4:30 or 5 p.m. in the evening,' he said, referring to the reported attack on the convoy of then-President Giani Zail Singh. Phoolka additionally claimed that individuals linked to the Congress were responsible for initiating violence near AIIMS in the wake of that convoy attack.

The Army Deployment Controversy

Phoolka also disputed Sonia Gandhi's explanation for the delayed deployment of the Army, in which she allegedly attributed the delay to reservations held by the then-Army Chief. Citing the testimony of then-Army Chief General A.S. Vaidya before the Misra Commission, Phoolka said the general had himself ordered troops to mobilise at 10:30 a.m. on 31 October after learning of the assassination.

He further noted that General Vaidya had called in the Sikh Light Infantry from the Meerut unit, directly contradicting Sonia Gandhi's claim that the Army Chief lacked confidence in Sikh soldiers. 'In reality, it was the Rajiv Gandhi's government which didn't trust the Sikh soldiers,' Phoolka remarked. He added that General Vaidya had also testified that 6,100 soldiers were available in Delhi on 31 October, and that the Misra Commission's own report noted that deploying even 5,000 of them on 1 November could have saved at least 2,000 Sikh lives.

Phoolka on Political Accountability and Justice

The BJP leader accused the then-Congress government of compounding the violence through its subsequent conduct. He recalled Rajiv Gandhi's post-riots remark — 'When a big tree falls, the earth shakes a little' — as an attempt to justify the massacre, and alleged that leaders linked to the riots, including HKL Bhagat, Jagdish Tytler, and Kamal Nath, were subsequently promoted within the government.

On Sonia Gandhi's statement that 'justice has been hard,' Phoolka was unsparing: 'Judges from lower courts to High Court were transferred…and even chargesheets were not filed in courts,' he said, implying a systemic obstruction of justice under Congress rule.

Background and Broader Significance

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots, which erupted in the immediate aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination on 31 October 1984, resulted in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs across India, with New Delhi witnessing the worst violence. Two official commissions — the Misra Commission and the Nanavati Commission — have examined the events, with the Nanavati Commission concluding in 2005 that Congress leaders were involved in organising the violence. The riots remain one of the most politically charged episodes in post-independence Indian history, and Sonia Gandhi's memoir has reignited a long-running debate over accountability and historical record. How the Congress responds to these specific challenges is likely to shape the next phase of this public controversy.