"It is not for the first time I have said so. I have been saying it for the past 30 years, but why is it now that Akalis and BJP have woken up and decided to protest?" he asked.
"... for the obvious reason that they want to polarise people for petty political benefit as they are badly losing across Punjab, Amritsar in particular," he said.
He said he was in favour of exemplary punishment for those behind the riots.
Hundreds of Sikhs were killed in riots in Delhi and other places following the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards at her official residence.
