Taking note of reports that late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Govern-ment may have helped the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi plan Operation Bluestar in 1984, India on Tuesday said it will seek information and take up the matter with UK.
At the same time, British Prime Minister David Cameron directed his Cabinet Secretary to verify the report which mentioned that its elite Special Air Services (SAS) visited India some months before Operation Bluestar to help in planning it.
Reacting to the reports, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here on Tuesday that this matter would be taken up with their UK counterparts. “We have seen these reports in newspapers and other forms of media about this issue. At this stage, we do not have any other information other than news reports. This is a matter which we will now take up with our UK counterparts and seek information from them,” he said.
“At this stage, I have nothing further to say, except that these are purely reports in the media, and no factual information has been shared with us so far,” he added.
In london, labour MP Tom Watson and lord Indarjit Singh demanded an explanation after recently declassified documents indicated that SAS officials were dispatched to help India plan the raid on the Golden Temple to flush out militants from the shrine.
“These events led to a tragic loss of life and we understand the very legitimate concerns that these papers will raise. The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to look into this case urgently and establish the facts,” a UK Government spokesperson said in a statement issued on Monday night.
“The PM and the Foreign Secretary were unaware of these papers prior to publication. Any requests for advice from foreign Governments are always evaluated carefully with full Ministerial supervision and appropriate legal advice,” he added.
The documents being referenced were released by the National Archives in london under the 30-year declassification rule as part of a series over the New Year. A letter marked “top secret and personal” dated February 23, 1984, nearly four months before the operation, titled ‘Sikh Community’, reads: “The Indian authorities recently sought British advice over a plan to remove Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
“The Foreign Secretary decided to respond favourably to the Indian request and with the Prime Minister’s agreement, an SAS officer has visited India and drawn up a plan which has been approved by Mrs Gandhi. The Foreign Secretary believes that the Indian Government may put the plan into operation shortly.”
lord Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations in UK, said: “These documents prove what Sikhs have suspected all along, that plans to invade the Golden Temple went back months even though the Indian Government was claiming even weeks before that there were no such plans.”
lord Singh also said he had already approached the Indian Government for the need of an independent international enquiry to establish the exact facts adding he will raise the issue in the House of lords.
labour MP Watson, who represents West Bromwich East, said: “It is not unreasonable to ask for an explanation about the extent of British military collusion with the Government of Indira Gandhi.” He has written to UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and plans to raise the issue in the House of Commons.
“I think British Sikhs and all those concerned about human rights will want to know exactly the extent of Britain’s collusion with this period and this episode and will expect some answers from the Foreign Secretary.
“But trying to hide what we did, not coming clean, I think would be a very grave error and I very much hope that the foreign secretary will...Reveal the documents that exist and give us an explanation to the House of Commons and to the country about the role of Britain at that very difficult time for Sikhism and Sikhs,” he added.