launching a scathing attack on Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for the indifferent role he played during the Operation Bluestar in June 1984, senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Tuesday demanded declassification of all the papers related to the Operation Bluestar before giving a silent burial to the issue.
“I am all for declassification of all the documents related to the Operation Bluestar, whether in India or anywhere. Thirty years have passed…the country has every right to know if anything conspired between UK and Indian authorities at that time,” said the former Chief Minister.
Maintaining that the scars of Operation Bluestar and 1984 riots can never be do away with and the Sikhs specially can never forget that, Amarinder said: let us put this issue to rest once and for all…and give our 100 per cent to take the State forward. let leave it as a part of history now.”
The development is significant as it comes within a week after SAD MP Harsimrat Badal raised the demand for declassifying documents related to the infamous event. The issue was raked up once again after declassification of documents by the UK authorities led to a furore in the Indian state of Punjab.
Asserting that Operation Bluestar was a “wrong decision” which he had opposed then, Amarinder also trained guns at senior BJP leader lK Advani for asking the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to conduct military action in the Golden Temple, and assuring full support to that.
“Advani has said this in his autobiography ‘My Country My life’…where he has written about speaking in the Parliament and meeting Indira Gandhi to seek military action in the Golden Temple. Why have you not asked Advani to apologiseIJ,” said Capt while releasing a picture showing Advani leading a delegation to the then Prime Minister with a banner seeking army action in Golden Temple.
Raising the ante against his rival Chief Minister Badal, Capt Amarinder asked him to shed light on whether he had met any senior Union Minister in New Delhi “alone” or with anyone before going into “hiding” ahead of Operation Bluestar.
“People wanted to know about it since this is crucial to his role and stand on the Operation, particularly after he went into hiding leading to a lot of suspicion about his voluntary disappearance,” said the permanent invitee of the Congress Working Committee.
Amarinder, while saying that he was involved in negotiations with jarnail Singh Bhindrawale before the Operation, held Badal “equally responsible” for it. “He was one of the main reasons behind the situation…he played the most negative role….Badal was a free man before, during and after the operation, and deliberately went into hiding for reasons best known to him”.
Amarinder based his claims on several documents, books on the developments related to Operation Bluestar and about the fact that Badal was not in jail at that time as he was falsely trying to claim.
Disputing Badal’s claims that he had spent a long time of his life in jail, Capt Amarinder clarified, “In total he did not spend more than five years in jail. Actually he spent just 18 months in jail and that was during emergency and rest of the time was spent comfortably in state guest houses and the entire time period does not add up to even five years.