Shoe-thrower Jarnail Singh releases book on anti-Sikh riots

New Delhi, Nov 6 : Jarnail Singh, the Sikh journalist who made headlines for hurling a shoe at Home Minister P. Chidambaram for not bringing culprits to book for their roles in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Friday released his book on the subject.

"I wrote the book so that the culprits feel ashamed. So society wake and hit them. After the incident, everyone talked about the death toll. But no one thought about the sufferings leashed by these planned massacre," he said.

The book titled "I Accuse..." in English and "Kab Kategi Chaurasi" (When will 1984 pass) in Hindi and published by Penguin was released by one of the riot victims, Darshan Kaur.

"I think those people who vote them to power are also culprits. I want justice," Singh, a former journalist, said.

"Why no prime minister has visited the widows' colony," he said, referring to the working class neighbourhood in west Delhi that was one of the prime targets of the anti-Sikh riots that followed prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination on Oct 31, 1984.

"The prime minister (Manmohan Singh) says that forget the incident. Instead, he should try and bring justice," he said.

The book starts with 11-year-old Singh witnessing the brutal killing of fellow Sikhs firsthand.

Jarnail Singh, who lost his newspaper job after the shoe-throwing incident, said he was playing cricket outside his house in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi when he heard of the looting and killing that erupted in Delhi. Over 3000 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and northern India in the carnage.

"The book ends with why I was prompted to throw a shoe (at Chidambaram)," said Singh.

Recently he was awarded the "Lion of Delhi" award at the Spinning Wheels film festival in Toronto, Canada that has a large expatriate Sikh community.