Call it foolishness or mere carelessness. Congress President in one of her many follies appointed Kamal Nath as Genberal Secretary along with Ghulam Nabi Azad and made him in charge of the upcoming elections in Punjab, next year. After a series of inevitable events, Kamal Nath finally decided to resign and gave up the charge of Punjab and Haryana. And in doing so he has only saved Congress party of any more damage.

Kamal Nath may be a senior leader with a lot of experience in Congress, but he carries with him the stigms of 1984 Sikh riots that cannot be shrugged away. And it may be a moment of insensitivity that the opposition parties have promptly derided. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal may be reflecting the sentiment of several others when he said, “It is an unbelievable brazen act of insensitivity towards Sikhs and crass and vulgar disregard of national opinion on the guilty of the massacre of thousands of innocent Sikh children, men and women by Congress goons in November 1984. I just cannot believe a political party can be so brutally insensitive to the sentiments of Sikhs.”

It is anyone’s guess why such an evident point was missed or is it that the Congress party was deprived of senior leaders who could shoulder the responsibility. Unofficial reports suggest that former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit may take over the charge.