1984 anti-Sikh riots crusader H.S. Phoolka joins BJP

Senior advocate and 1984 anti-Sikh riots crusader H.S. Phoolka on Wednesday (April 1, 2026) joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and others at the party headquarters.

After making his political debut with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2014, Mr. Phoolka became the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly in 2017.

However, in October 2018, he quit as an MLA expressing displeasure over the Congress government’s purported failure to take action against those named in the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report for their alleged role in police action that led to deaths in the wake of sacrilege cases. Later, he quit AAP and politics.

In 2019, Mr. Phoolka was awarded the Padma Shri in recognition of his decades-long legal crusade to secure justice for the victims of the 1984 riots.

After a hiatus of six years, in December 2024, he had announced his decision to join the Shiromani Akali Dal.