The row over Operation Bluestar with claims and counter claims between Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh intensified further on Thursday.
While the 86-year-old Akali stalwart accused the former Chief Minister of vitiating the political atmosphere of the state with his “false” claims on Operation Bluestar, Amarinder dubbed Badal as “evasive coward”.
Badal’s assertions came in reaction to Amarinder’s allegations of betraying his own men, as it was he who asked the then Congress-led Union Government to go for military action at the Golden Temple in a “secret meeting” with the then Home Minister PV Narasimha Rao on March 28, 1984. Responding to Amarinder’s allegations, Badal said: “Amarinder was divested of the office of Chief Minister and the president-ship of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee due to his die-hard habit of vendetta, making false claims and beating about the bush.”
Retorting that it was Badal who was actually beating around the bush and not he, Amarinder said: “Badal still does not have moral courage to reply to my specific questions as why he met the then Union Home Minister PV Narsimha Rao alone and did he not suggest military operation”. Badal said, “I hardly saw any reason to answer queries of such liars who have already enormously harmed the State and its people”, questioning Amarinder, “Why didn’t he issue such statement when he was holding the chair of the Chief MinisterIJ”
Dubbing him as the “biggest liar”, Badal said: “I have not ever seen such a big liar like Amarinder in my life who has not only eroded the credibility of Congress but also vitiated the political atmosphere of the State.” Talking to media persons on the sidelines of a function of inauguration of Jain Hospital in Muktsar, Badal said that the curfew was clamped across the state during Operation Bluestar and he had been arrested two days after he entered Haryana from his village.
Ridiculing Badal’s “evasive lies” about his role during Operation Bluestar, Capt Amarinder said that he had “reaffirmed public belief that at best he is an evasive coward and at worst an outright liar”.
Asking Badal to either give specific answers or straightway deny the allegations based on “documentary evidence”, various books, and Centre’s white paper, Amarinder responded to his query saying, “Unlike him (Badal), I was busy running the State… I also feel I should have revealed these things that time only so that people of the State should have known the truth much before”.
Amarinder wondered as how Badal was conveniently “telling lies when whole world knew that he was arrested not after two days of Operation Bluestar but on the night of June 11 and 12. Moreover, curfew was imposed on June 3”. “If Gurcharan Singh Tohra could reach Amritsar on June 2 on the call of Sant Harchand Singh longowal from Patiala, why could not Badal,” Amarinder asked, adding, instead he attended a wedding in his village.