The verbal slugfest on the issue of Operation Bluestar has started again. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday blamed that his predecessor Capt Amarinder Singh was telling white lies on to justify his own presence in a party which ordered the most senseless and brutal army assault on the holiest of holy Sikh shrines — Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Reacting to Capt Amarinder’s allegation that SAD leader had asked the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to order Army action, Badal chided Capt Amarinder by saying, “You must be a very foolish man to resign from a party that ordered Operation Bluestar and join a party which had advised it. Why did you join SAD under my leadership if you thought we were responsible for BluestarIJ”

“Amarinder has a problem which every liar has. He needs a sharp memory to remember all the contradictory lies he keeps telling, and like any other liar, he can’t remember all,” he added, while taking a dig at arch rival.

Badal said, “Capt Amarinder wants the world to believe that everyone except Indira Gandhi was responsible for the stupid and tragic army assault on Darbar Sahib. Today, he says that we asked Gandhi to order Operation Bluestar. Tomorrow, he will say that we asked Rajiv Gandhi to order killings of thousands of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of the country after Gandhi’s assassination. There is no end to the lies to which Capt Amarinder can resort in his desperation to cover up his own sin of representing the Bluestar Party in Amritsar.”

Attacking the Congress party and its candidate from Amritsar Capt Amarinder Singh, he said that the Congress leader knew that he was of the devil’s party and was totally confused on what to say. “I have never seen him more confused in life and more self-conscious about his and his party’s guilt,” he said.

Referring to the “documents” released by Captain Amarinder Singh to prove his allegation that the Akali leaders asked Gandhi to attack the Golden Temple, he said: “What evidence is he producingIJ The White paper on Operation Bluestar prepared by Indira Gandhi’s governmentIJ It is like a liar quoting his own lies to prove his own lies. It is the same White Paper which Capt Amarinder himself had rejected after he staged the drama of quitting the Congress on this issue. This White Paper was described by all respected and independent voices, including the media, as “bundle of white lies”. But, Capt Amarinder has a fondness for everything white, including lies.”