Forty-two years on, the wounds of November 1984 remain raw enough to draw thousands onto the streets of Delhi. Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri joined members of the Sikh Sangat on Sunday, 1 November 2026, for a Padyatra — a solemn march on foot — through Hari Nagar in West Delhi, paying homage to Sikh men and women killed in some of the worst communal carnage independent India has witnessed.

What Puri said — and what those words carry

Puri described the violence in unsparing terms: members of his Sangat 'dragged out of their homes and burnt alive while their homes, shops, offices and establishments were looted and set afire.' He directly named the Indian National Congress party, accusing its 'goons and leaders' of openly perpetrating, encouraging, and aiding the killings on the streets of Delhi in 1984. He closed with a Hindi phrase that has become a refrain for the community — ना भूले हैं, ना भूलेंगे — 'We have not forgotten. We will not forget.'

The words are a political charge as much as a personal grief. Puri is himself a member of the Sikh community, and his framing — 'members of my Sangat' — places the statement squarely in lived memory, not just party rhetoric.

The violence of 1984 and the accountability question

The anti-Sikh riots erupted within hours of the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984. Over the days that followed, thousands of Sikhs were killed across Delhi and other cities in coordinated mob attacks. Multiple judicial inquiries and commissions over the following decades pointed to the involvement of Congress workers and local leaders in organising or enabling the violence, though convictions have been few and long-delayed.

The question of accountability — never fully resolved — has kept 1984 alive as a live political fault line, particularly around the anniversary window of 31 October to 3 November each year.

BJP's annual reckoning with Congress on 1984

For the BJP, commemorations of the 1984 riots serve a dual purpose: genuine community solidarity and a sharp electoral reminder of Congress's most damaging historical liability. Senior BJP leaders — and especially those from the Sikh community — have made the November anniversary a fixture of the political calendar. Puri, a career diplomat-turned-minister who has held some of India's most consequential cabinet positions, lends particular moral weight to this year's Padyatra.

The march through Hari Nagar, a locality in West Delhi that saw significant violence in 1984, chose geography deliberately. These are not abstract numbers — they are specific streets, specific addresses, and families who still live nearby.

Forty-two years and a government later, the march continues. The demand, encoded in those five Hindi words, has not changed: ना भूले हैं, ना भूलेंगे.