With the re-opening of the case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, memories of the anti-Sikh riots that killed several Sikhs in 1984 have opened up old wounds. While families of several victims have seen new hope in the court judgment, some are still fuming at the government for letting go people responsible for instigating anti-Sikh sentiment. Jagdish Kaur, a prime witness in the case, has today questioned why actor Amitabh Bachchan was not booked for fuelling anti-Sikh sentiments during interviews and TV appearances.

According to a Times of India report, Kaur said that he and many others had seen Amitabh Bachchan in a Doordarshan footage spewing venom against Sikhs. “I watched live relay on Doordarshan and saw Amitabh Bachchan raising his arm and shouting the slogan, ‘khun ka badla khun sae laengae’ (Blood for blood) two times. “ Kaur, who was 42-years-old when the riots broke out, had seen a mob murder her husband and son at her doorstep. She had also witnessed her three brothers being burnt alive by a mob.

However, the actor has constantly denied the allegations and in 2011 had even written a letter to Akal Takht in which he had vehemently denied any role the in the anti-Sikh riots, pointing out that his maternal grandparents were Sikhs. “I wish to take this opportunity to vehemently and categorically deny these allegations against me which are completely baseless, false and untrue. The Nehru-Gandhi family and our family have old ties from our city of origin, Allahabad.

We have been together in each other’s hour of grief and joy, but to allege that I was a part of the crowd that incited them to raise anti-Sikh slogans is a preposterous and blatant lie. Quite contrarily, I have always propagated the soothing of injured feelings and the maintenance of serenity. The unfortunate incidents of the riots of 1984 against the Sikhs shall always remain a blot and a dark phase in the history of our country, a country that prides itself in its secular credentials,” Bachchan wrote in the letter, according to this report.