Former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has strongly rejected Haryana MP Deepender Singh Hooda’s characterization of the late Sajjan Kumar as an “example,” calling the convicted 1984 anti-Sikh riot figure an “inhuman person.”
This public condemnation highlights a significant rift within the Congress party, as Punjab leaders move to dissociate themselves from Hooda’s sympathetic remarks regarding Kumar, who died while serving a life sentence.
A bitter ideological divide has erupted inside the Congress party following Haryana MP Deepender Singh Hooda’s public praise for Sajjan Kumar, a convicted architect of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence who recently died behind bars.
Punjab Congress leaders have launched a coordinated effort to insulate themselves from the controversy, moving rapidly to protect their standing with the victims of the 1984 tragedy by repudiating their colleague’s statements.
The political storm escalated when former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi openly rebuked Hooda’s sympathetic stance during an event in Ludhiana. The friction underscores a severe regional disconnect, pitting the Haryana faction’s grief over a former three-time Outer Delhi MP against the Punjab unit’s absolute condemnation of a man sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in 2018 and given an additional life term for murder in 2025.
“He was inhuman, not an example,” Channi stated bluntly, drawing a firm line against any institutional defense of Kumar.
