Senior Congress leader and Punjab Youth Congress president Barinder Singh Dhillon has criticised party MP Deepender Singh Hooda over his remarks on former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar, who died on August 20 while serving a life sentence in connection with cases related to the 1984 anti-Sikh violence.Hooda had described Kumar as a “great leader”. His remarks have drawn criticism from Punjab Congress leaders and opposition parties.Reacting to Hooda’s comments, Dhillon said on X that death could not erase a conviction and that calling a convicted person a “great leader” was an insult to the memory of thousands of victims of the 1984 violence and their families.“Death does not erase conviction. Sajjan Kumar died as a man serving life imprisonment for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence,” Dhillon said. “History should not be whitewashed.”His remarks came after Hooda faced criticism from Punjab leaders for referring to Kumar in highly complimentary terms following his death. The controversy has also prompted the Punjab Congress leadership to distance itself from Hooda’s remarks, saying that his comments represented his personal views and that the party stood with the victims of the 1984 violence and their families.Dhillon said the wounds of 1984 remained deeply embedded in the memories of Sikh families who lost their loved ones during the violence that followed the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.Sajjan Kumar, a former three time Lok Sabha member from outer Delhi and a prominent Congress leader, died at the age of 80 at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on August 20. He was serving a life sentence in Tihar Jail.Kumar was convicted by the Delhi High Court in December 2018 and sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of five members of a Sikh family in the Raj Nagar area during the 1984 violence and the burning of a gurdwara. The court also convicted him of criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and acts against communal harmony.In February 2025, a Delhi court sentenced Sajjan Kumar to life impronment for the killings of Jaswant Singh and his son Tarundeep Singh in Saraswati Vihar during the 1984 violence.Although Kumar was acquitted in another 1984 related case in January this year on grounds that the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, he continued to remain in jail because of his other convictions.Dhillon said political leaders had a responsibility to remember the victims while speaking about the legacy of those convicted in the 1984 cases.“Don’t add insult to the deepest wounds of 1984,” he said, directly tagging Hooda in his criticism.The statement of Dhillon also comes at a time when Congress in Punjab was deeply divided over leadership issues.