Families affected by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, along with members of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), staged a protest at Rakab Ganj Gurdwara in New Delhi on Thursday by burning copies of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love. The protesters said they were dissatisfied with the way the 1984 anti-Sikh violence was described in the book and expressed anger over Gandhi’s account of the tragic events that claimed the lives of thousands of Sikhs.

In her memoir, released earlier this week, Sonia Gandhi describes the anti-Sikh riots as a “tragic and shameful” chapter in India’s history. She writes that her husband and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi did not harbour hatred or prejudice, but found himself leading the country at a time when governance had broken down, allowing widespread violence to occur. Gandhi also recalls that after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, public sentiment changed rapidly and riots spread across Delhi and other parts of the country, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,000 Sikhs in the national capital alone.

The protest at Rakab Ganj Gurdwara reflected the continuing sensitivity surrounding the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, an issue that remains politically and emotionally significant decades later. Demonstrators maintained that the suffering of victims and their families cannot be adequately addressed through the account presented in the memoir. The 1984 violence continues to be a subject of public debate, with survivors and victims’ families regularly seeking justice, accountability and greater recognition of the tragedy’s impact.