Set up in the memory of slain militants, and common people at the Golden Temple in 1984, the Operation Bluestar Memorial is threatening to derail relations between the BJP and its coalition partner, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab.
Taking a firm stand since beginning against the setting up of the Memorial inside the Golden Temple premises, BJP has now taken up this matter with the party high command. The party’s core committee has also decided to give its ally enough time to resolve the issue.
Pressing upon the SAD leadership to remove all the “objectionable” things from the memorial citing “threat to law and order and communal harmony” in the State, BJP wants Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to keep his word regarding the Memorial.
Badal, in his statement on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha, had maintained that the Memorial was being raised to “condemn” Operation Bluestar. And, the “Memorial will be just like a Gurudwara where Granth Sahib (Sikh’s holy book) will be placed and there will be no photographs of anyone in it”.
Conversely, the Memorial, after completion and thrown open to public, is donning controversial sect leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s picture, and also a plaque carrying his name — something that triggered the entire controversy.
The decision to built Memorial was taken in the executive meeting of the SAD-led Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) way back, and the construction work was handed over to a Sikh radical group, Damdami Taksal.
The Memorial has been built in the honour of all those who were killed when the Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple in 1984, in a gun battle with the terrorists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
“We have expressed our reservation regarding some things in the Memorial that is glorifying the militancy era. SGPC has taken serious view of that and removed those controversial objects. But, there are still few references in the memorial that we want them to withdraw,” Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma told The Pioneer.
He added that the core committee of the party had discussed this issue at length, and also taken up this issue on priority with the Chief Minister. He has assured us of “early solution”.
Badal has already set up a committee of five head priests, headed by Akal Takht Jathedar (head priest) Giani Gurbachan Singh, to resolve the matter. However, the first meet of the Committee ended inconclusive.
On the face of it, the Sikh clergy did not find anything wrong in having some inscriptions in the Memorial carrying Bhindranwale’s name. The clergy is, in fact, mulling to seek the opinions of various Panthic leaders on the issue.
While the Sant Samaj has expressed its opposition to remove Bhindranwale’s name from the Memorial’s entrance and the signboard in the ‘parkarma’, SGPC and the SAD are in the favour of getting rid of all references to the individuals.
SAD and SGPC’s stand is in the wake of Chief Minister Badal’s assurance to the state assembly last year that the Memorial would be just a Gurdwara, and not have any name or picture of anyone.
Considering the issue to be of “very serious nature”, the BJP core committee had accorded that it may act as a threat to the hard-earned law and order situation and communal harmony amity in the State.
“The party has a general feeling that having Bhindrawale’s name in the Memorial is not right. As Badal saab has given his assurance to the House, it’s their duty to stand by his word.
A party delegation, including state party affairs in-charge Shanta Kumar and state president Kamal Sharma met the Chief Minister,” said a senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, while talking to The Pioneer.
He added that the party has general view that in case the Damdami Taksal wants to have a Memorial dedicated to their leader Bhindranwale, “they should have done it in their Gurudwara at Chowk Mehta in Amritsar, not at this holy shrine that attracts lakhs of pilgrims from across the world”.
This is not for the first time when the two allies stand opposed to each other. Sticking to its party’s national stand against terrorism, the State BJP did not support Akali Dal in its efforts to save two Khalistani terrorists — Balwant Singh Rajoana and Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar — from the gallows. BJP also opposed SAD’s plan to move resolution seeking clemency for Bhullar.
The flashback
Operation Blue Star was launched in June 1984 to flush out hiding militants in the Golden Temple led by their leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was also killed in the operation.
The Memorial has now been built by the Damdami Taksal, the Sikh seminary once headed by Bhindranwale, in the precincts of the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), and handed over to the SGPC on April 27.
The controversy erupted when a plaque dedicating the newly constructed memorial to Bhindrawale, besides few other references to the controversial leader, were found in the Memorial. SGPC feigned ignorance.
Radical Sikh organiasations led by Damdami Taksal leader Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa maintained that they would not tolerate removal of the plaque or any other
symbol of Bhindrawala from the premises, substantiating their move with a SGPC’s May 2012 resolution agreeing to “dedicate the memorial to Bhindranwale and others who were killed during the 1984 army operation.”
Now, a Committee comprising Sikh’s head priests are looking into the matter.