DELHI: The Delhi Assembly on Friday passed a resolution demanding that Bharat Ratna awarded to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi be withdrawn over the 1984 anti-Sikh genocide.

The resolution moved by MLA Jarnail Singh was passed by a voice vote in the House.

The Delhi government should “strongly” convey in writing to the Union Home Ministry (MHA) that justice continues to elude the families and near-dear ones of the victims of the worst genocides in the history of India’s national capital, the resolution said.

The House directed the government to impress upon the MHA that it should take all important and necessary steps to specifically include crimes against humanity and genocide in India’s domestic criminal laws, as recommended by the Delhi High Court in its recent landmark judgment sentencing Sajjan Kumar and other convicts to life imprisonment.

Rajiv Gandhi, who took over the reins of the Congress party and government following his mother’s demise, was posthumously awarded Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, in 1991.

He has been long accused of complicity as well as justifying the genocide on account of his infamous speech during which he referred to the genocide stating:

“when a big tree falls, the earth shakes”.