Kamal Nath

Kamal Nath is a senior Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh. In 1984 he was a Congress MP; in December 2018 he became Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. Sikhs know his name because of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, next to Parliament in Delhi, where on 1 November 1984 a mob besieged the shrine, two Sikhs were burnt alive and the gurdwara was set alight. He has said he was there; he denies leading or controlling the mob, and no court has found him guilty over it. He is a living person, so each claim below is attributed.

The accounts. Nath told the Nanavati Commission that he was at the gurdwara. He has said he went to pacify the crowd on the direction of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two witnesses say otherwise. The reporter Sanjay Suri, then with The Indian Express, said Nath was “controlling the crowd”, which was “looking to him for directions”; Mukhtiar Singh, a victim, said Nath led the mob. In an excerpt from their book published in 2018, Manoj Mitta and HS Phoolka write that Nath stayed about two hours of a siege that lasted over five. Phoolka is an advocate in these cases, so this is the authors' reading, not a finding.

What the Nanavati Commission found. The commission called Nath's reply “vague” and his two-hour stay “quite a long time”, but held that “in absence of better evidence” it could not find that he instigated the mob or took part in the attack. Both statements are true together: the commission doubted his explanation yet did not hold him responsible. Nath says the commission cleared him.

Key moments

• FIR 601/84, Parliament Street police station: Nath is never named in it. The five accused named in it are later discharged for lack of evidence. Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa alleges that Nath sheltered them; Nath denies the charges.
• January 2013: Sikhs for Justice and a Swiss group file a complaint with the Swiss Attorney General seeking his arrest while he is at Davos. SikhNet's report, which relays the complainants' account, says the case was docketed and forwarded to the prosecutor of the canton of Grisons. The report gives no outcome.
• June 2016: the Congress names him general secretary in charge of Punjab. After an outcry from AAP and the Akali Dal he resigns within days.
• December 2018: he becomes Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, despite objections from the Akali Dal and the BJP, who cite his presence at Rakab Ganj.
• September 2019: the SIT, set up in February 2015 on a committee's recommendation, reopens seven 1984 cases. Sirsa says Suri and Mukhtiar Singh are ready to give statements about Nath.
• 6 February 2024: the Delhi High Court gives the SIT more time to answer Sirsa's plea for action against Nath.
• 18 November 2025: Justice Ravinder Dudeja issues notice on Sirsa's application for a report by the then Additional Commissioner of Police Gautam Kaul that allegedly records Nath at the gurdwara. HS Phoolka argues for Sirsa; the Centre and Delhi Police are to reply by 15 January 2026.

Remembered for. When the Congress promoted him in 2016 and 2018, AAP, the Akali Dal and the BJP objected because of his presence at Rakab Ganj. Nath answered that the Nanavati Commission had not held him responsible. The question of his role is still before the Delhi High Court.