After Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi distanced themselves from Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda’s remarks on former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, former Haryana Assembly Speaker Kuldeep Sharma has sought Hooda’s removal from the Congress Working Committee (CWC).In an email to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharma said Hooda, a permanent invitee to the CWC, had described Sajjan Kumar as a “role model” and his death as an “irreparable loss”.He said the remarks had sent “shock waves” through the Sikh community and could hurt the Congress politically, particularly ahead of the Punjab elections.Sharma said the Congress had already “disassociated itself completely” from Sajjan Kumar and urged Kharge to remove Hooda from the CWC to demonstrate the party’s bona fides and “heal the wounds” reopened by the remarks.Sharma is the first Haryana Congress leader to publicly criticise Hooda over the issue after leaders of the AAP, the BJP and the SAD, besides Punjab Congress leaders, sought clarification from the Congress.Sajjan Kumar was serving two life sentences for his involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.Hooda issued a clarification, saying his statement had been “distorted and presented out of context”. He said an English word was being attributed to him that he had “never uttered” and never intended to convey.“I had absolutely no intention of hurting any of our brothers. I could never even imagine causing hurt to our brothers in the Sikh community,” he said, adding that if anyone’s feelings had been hurt, he expressed his regret.Describing the Sikh community as “family”, Hooda said its sacrifices for the nation could never be forgotten. He also recalled the role of his great-grandfather, Chaudhary Maturam, who, during the 1908 Pagdi Sambhal Jatta movement, was sentenced to Kala Pani along with Sardar Ajit Singh, uncle of Bhagat Singh.Hooda also said victims of the Sikh riots deserved justice and “no guilty person should be spared”.