1. Early days

2. 1984 anti-Sikh riots
    Nanavati Commission  Defamation allegations   Reopening of the case in 2007   "Clean chit" by CBI   Denial of Lok Sabha ticket   2013 Sessions Court decision  

3. References

4. Further reading

5. External links

Jagdish Tytler (born 11 January 1944) is an Indian National Congress politician and former Member of Parliament. He has held several government positions, the last being as Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs, a post from which he resigned after publication of a report by an official commission of inquiry, known as the Nanavati Commission. The Commission had noted that he "very probably" had a hand in organising attacks on the Sikh community in Delhi after Sikh bodyguards assassinated the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He has not been charged with any crimes related to those riots.

Due to the controversy concerning his involvement in the riots, the Congress party dropped his name as the candidate for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.^[1]

Early days

Tytler was born on 11 January 1944^[2] as Jagdish Kapoor in the Punjabi city of Gujranwala in British India. He was brought up by the educationist James Douglas Tytler, the founder of many public schools including the Delhi Public School and the Summer Fields School.^[3] In 2011, his entry into the Jagannath Temple at Puri, which is reserved only for Hindus, caused questions about his religion, to be raised in the Odisha Legislative Assembly.^[4] Tytler denied having converted to Christianity, and stated that he had changed his name to show his gratitude towards James Douglas Tytler, who had brought him up.^[5]

Active in the Congress' youth organisation and a "disciple" of Sanjay Gandhi,{{cn|date=January 2019}} he was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980. He served as a Union Minister first in the Civil Aviation department and then in the Labor department. He was re-elected in 1991 and served as the Union Minister of State for Surface Transport. In 2004, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha.^[2]

1984 anti-Sikh riots

Tytler has been accused of involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in India. The riots had occurred after Sikh bodyguards assassinated Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Tytler stated that he was present at Teen Murti Bhavan for the funeral ceremony with Gandhi's body and was in mourning at the time when these events occurred at Gurudwara Pulbangash, situated near Azad Market.^[7][6] He has not been charged with any crimes related to the 1984 riots.^[7]

On April 2004, the Indian National Congress announced Sajjan Kumar, Jagdish Tytler, R. K. Anand and others allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh riots, as its candidates for Indian Parliament elections for constituencies in and around Delhi. Sajjan Kumar, R. K. Anand, Darshan Shastri and H. K. L. Bhagat were accused by several independent commissions of inquiry of being complicit in the riots, including the People's Union for Civil Liberties, the People's Union for Democratic Rights and the Citizen's Justice Committee.{{cn|date=January 2019}}

Nanavati Commission

The report of the Nanavati Commission looking into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots said that Tytler "very probably" had a hand in organising the attacks. The then Congress-led Government of India, however, decided not to prosecute him or anyone else named in the report due to lack of concrete evidence.^[8]

Tytler, who had been appointed minister of state with independent charge of non-resident affairs, claimed innocence, saying that it was a case of mistaken identity.{{cn|date=January 2019}} He said he had not been in the area at the time and that eight earlier commissions of inquiry had exonerated him.^[9] On 10 August 2005, he resigned from the Union Council of Ministers, stating that it was his "moral duty" to do so to prevent opposition parties making political capital out of the situation following release of the Nanavati report.^[10]

Defamation allegations

In 2004, lawyer H. S. Phoolka filed a case in the Ludhiana court against Tytler, accusing Tytler of defaming him during a television programme in the same year.^[11] In 2014, Phoolka declined an "unconditional apology" from Tytler as a proposed settlement.^[12] The court framed charges against Tytler in 2015. As of July 2018, no verdict had been reached.^[13]

Reopening of the case in 2007

India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) closed all cases against Tytler in November 2007 for his alleged criminal conspiracy to engineer riots against Sikhs in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination on 31 October 1984. The CBI submitted a report to the Delhi court which stated that no evidence or witness had been found to corroborate the allegations of instigating crowd during riot against Tytler.^[14][15][16]

On 18 December 2007, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Delhi court, Sanjeev Jain, who had earlier dismissed the case after the CBI's report to his court, ordered the CBI to reopen cases against Tytler relating to the riots.^[17]

"Clean chit" by CBI

In March 2009, the CBI filed its final report on investigation into the riots cases and cleared Jagdish Tytler.^[18] The BJP which was then in opposition alleged that "such a clean chit ahead of the elections" implied that the CBI had been misused.^[19] On 2 April, CBI claimed there was lack of sufficient evidence against Tytler and sought to close the riot case.^[22]

On 7 April 2009, the then Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, had a shoe thrown at him by Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist, during a press conference in Delhi. Singh, who works at the Hindi daily Dainik Jagran, was dissatisfied with Chidambaram's answer to a question about the "clean chit" given to Tytler.^[20]

In 2010, CBI reiterated the clean chit to Tytler.^[21]

Denial of Lok Sabha ticket

After the shoe throwing incident, the Congress party dropped both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha elections of 2009.^[22] Tytler accused the media of victimizing him through a media trial. Tytler blamed the Shiromani Akali Dal and his "enemies" within the Congress party for scuttling his nomination.^[23]

2013 Sessions Court decision

In April 2013, a Sessions Court rejected the CBI report and ordered investigation against Tytler.^[24] Witnesses in the subsequent investigation have included Abhishek Verma^[25] and Amitabh Bachchan.^[26]

References

Further reading

• {{cite news |title=Jagdish Tytler: A Recap |first=Sundeep |last=Dougal |date=10 April 2013 |work=Outlook |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/blog/story/jagdish-tytler-a-recap/2961 |accessdate=2019-01-17}}

External links

• antisystemic.org, After Apology, Congress Tries to Scuttle Sikh Massacre Report

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