'hua Toh Hua ' Or 'ab Bahut Hua'

“Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.”

Or

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda’s ‘hua toh hua’ (so what if it happened) remark on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots sparked a controversy on Friday 10^th May 2019, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the party, saying it testified for the “character, mentality and intentions” of the Congress.

Pitroda was telling an interviewer that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should focus on his performance instead of digging into the past when he coolly responded to a query about the 1984 violence with“hua toh hua”.

We as Indians need to mull over the nature of this statement. Is it the ideology of the Congress party at large or the insensitivity of an individual or just another instance of a tongue-slip, several instances of which have been recurring over the Election Season this year?

How can a learned and exceptionally qualified personality like Mr. Pitroda,famously known asfather of Indian telecommunication revolution. deliver such an outrageously shameful remark pertaining to an incident that still shudders the Indian masses. How can he close the chapter of the ruthless carnage of thousands of Sikhs, whose shops were set ablaze and livelihoods were destroyed, with just three unsympathetic words?

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday publicly rebuked party functionary Sam Pitroda, saying he should apologiserealizing that hiscasual remark about 1984 could cost the reputation of the Congress party and seethe its supporters.

In a desperate attempt to pacify the outraged Sikhs, Mr. Pitroda later tweeted.

This isn’t the first of instances where he has stirred controversies like this. His take on the Pulwama attack (‘attacks like Pulwama happen all the time…it is wrong to attack Pakistan) was equally abonimally if not any less. A public personality like him must be mindful while giving out interviews and make conscious attempts to not hurt the sentiments of people and reopen wounds of the past.

From a ‘moral of the story’ aspect of this event, Mr. Pitroda must be advised to be guided by the aphorism :

‘Better the foot slip than the tongue.’