Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday, 1 November 2026, declared that the 1984 anti-Sikh violence was not a riot but a genocide orchestrated by the Congress government of the time, stating that at least 2,733 people were killed in Delhi alone and approximately 3,325 across the country according to official figures.

Key Remarks at the Protest March

Puri was addressing a gathering organised under the banner of the '1984 Sikh Genocide Protest March', convened by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in association with Sikh organisations to mourn the victims. He argued that the scale and one-sided nature of the killings — where two groups did not clash but Sikh individuals were systematically targeted — disqualified the standard use of the word 'riot'.

'The appropriate term for this was genocide. The Delhi High Court, as far as he recalled, had also used terms such as 'Crime Against Humanity' to describe these incidents,' Puri said.

Evidence of Pre-Planning, Says Puri

The Minister drew on personal and documented accounts to argue that the violence was not spontaneous. He pointed out that attackers appeared to possess detailed information about their targets in advance — going beyond electoral rolls to identify Sikh residents by name and address.

'A person named Harnam Singh could belong to Madhya Pradesh or Haryana and could be a Jat, a Rajput or any other individual wearing a turban. However, the attackers appeared to have been provided with the identities and details of their targets in advance. This clearly indicated that the violence was not the result of spontaneous anger but had been meticulously planned,' Puri said.

He also recounted that mobs had reached the residence of then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi. According to Puri, Singh's son-in-law, who was Hindu, stood at the door and informed the mob it was his home; the mob reportedly countered that their list showed a Sikh lived there, but eventually moved on after he insisted otherwise.

Personal Connection to the Events

Puri recalled that in 1984 he was posted in Geneva while his parents lived in Delhi's GDA Colony. He credited Hindu neighbours and friends who drove his parents to safety when the violence broke out — a personal memory he shared to underscore both the horror and the individual acts of courage that occurred alongside it.

Political Barb at Opposition Rally

Puri also took aim at the timing of the INDIA bloc rally at Ramlila Maidan, which was scheduled for 1 November — the anniversary of the violence. He questioned why the opposition could not have chosen a different date, calling the choice 'inappropriate'. He added that Congress had never offered an adequate apology to the victims and urged the party's leaders to reflect seriously on their legacy in connection with the events of 1984.

This comes amid recurring political flashpoints over the 1984 violence, with the BJP having consistently used the anniversary to press the Congress on accountability, particularly ahead of electoral cycles. Notably, courts and commissions over four decades have reached differing conclusions on culpability, and several convictions and acquittals remain contested.

Call for Remembrance and Prevention

Puri concluded by asserting that neither the Sikh community nor the nation had fully reckoned with what occurred in 1984. He called it both an individual and collective responsibility to ensure the events are never forgotten and that such violence never recurs — 'either in India or anywhere else in the world,' he said.