Forty-two years on, the streets of Hari Nagar, Delhi carried the weight of an unhealed wound. Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri joined members of the Sikh Sangat on Sunday, 1 November 2026 for a jansabha and Padyatra to pay homage to the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence — a gathering where many present were survivors, children, and grandchildren of those killed in the carnage.

A Padyatra Rooted in Rage and Memory

Puri did not mince words. 'ना भूले हैं, ना भूलेंगे' — 'We have not forgotten, we will not forget' — opened his post, setting the register for everything that followed. He described the violence as 'the most brutal ever unleashed against Sikhs in Independent India,' recounting how Gurdwara Sahibs were attacked, homes and properties burnt to the ground, and the streets of Delhi left 'littered with bodies of murdered Sikhs.'

The events he referenced erupted in the days following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. What followed across Delhi and other cities was a wave of targeted killings of Sikh men and women, widely documented and investigated by multiple commissions over the subsequent decades.

The Political Charge Against Congress

Puri levelled a direct and sharp indictment at the Indian National Congress, accusing the party of having 'openly encouraged and aided' the violence, then spent decades sheltering and protecting perpetrators. 'Those who now talk of Mohabbat [love] are the original founding fathers of hate against Sikhs,' he wrote, in a pointed reference to opposition campaign sloganeering. He called on Congress leaders to be 'ashamed and repentant.'

This narrative sits at the centre of the BJP's long-standing contrast with the Congress on the 1984 question. The Nanavati Commission, constituted in 2000 and reporting in 2005, examined the riots but its findings were disputed by victims' groups as incomplete. It took a Supreme Court-mandated Special Investigation Team in 2018 to finally drive convictions in several high-profile cases.

Credit to PM Modi, a Promise to the Sangat

Puri credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the 'firm resolve' to ensure perpetrators who had been 'protected, and even promoted by Congress Party' were eventually brought to justice. But he was equally clear that the task is unfinished. 'Our Sangat will not rest till the last remaining perpetrator is punished by law,' he wrote — a commitment that lands as both tribute to the dead and a political pledge to the living.

Among the prominent figures who joined the Padyatra were Delhi CM Smt Rekha Gupta, senior advocate and long-time 1984 justice activist Sdr H.S. Phoolka, BJP Delhi President and Union Minister Sh H.D. Malhotra, Members of Parliament Sh Ramvir Bidhuri and Smt K.J. Sehrawat, Delhi Ministers Sh Ashish Sood and Sdr M.S. Sirsa, and several MLAs, councillors, and party office-bearers.

A Date That Never Passes Quietly

The timing is never coincidental. Annual commemorations on 31 October and 1 November have become a fixed point in India's political calendar — a moment when the Sikh community mourns, and when political parties are held to account for what they did or failed to do in those blood-soaked days of 1984. With court proceedings in remaining cases still pending, the anniversary retains its urgency well beyond ceremony.

For the families who walked Hari Nagar's streets on Sunday, the padyatra was not a political event. It was evidence that the promise — ना भूले हैं, ना भूलेंगे — still holds.