Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Amritsar, Dal Khalsa today joined issues with President Pranab Mukherjee on his revelation that the Operation Bluestar, the army assault on the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar in June 1984 was unavoidable.
Party spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh said for the first time a member of the team nominated by then prime minister Indira Gandhi had admitted that the decision to storm the holiest of the holy Sikh shrine was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) to which he himself was member and he had justified it.
Notably, the President in his memoir ‘The Turbulent Years’ has written that the Prime Minister Home Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Defence Minister R Venkataraman, Energy Minister P. Shiv Shankar beside him took the decision to send the army to storm Darbar Sahib.
He said with Mukherjee’s admission, at least all claims and talks had been turned out to be a farce that the country’s leadership including the Congress had expressed regret over the army attack. He further said it’s an eye-opener for all those including Captain Amrinder Singh who has been advising the Sikh community to forget and forgive the perpetrators of that heinous attack. He said the developments had made amply clear that the assault was planned at highest level of the country not to flush out militants but to teach the Sikhs a bitter lesson and that the country’s establishment and political leadership whether it’s with Congress or the BJP has no regret over it.
He nailed the claims of the president that the situation went uncontrolled that led to the “operation”. He said it was on the record that in February that year the Indira Gandhi government sought help and advice from the British government on the matter.
The Dal Khalsa leader said the President’s knowledge about Anandpur Sahib Resolution 1973 was far from truth and facts as there was only one resolution adopted by Akali Dal that advocated true federal structure of polity in the country. Contrary to the president’s claim, the resolution never sought Khalistan nor its demands were out of the purview of the Indian Constitution.
However, the Dal Khalsa leader was highly sceptical about the role of the present chief minister Parkash Singh Badal. Whether Badal was acquiesced with the Central government in planning the operation was still under scanner even after 32 years of the painful event. It’s high time that “Badal himself must come clean as to why he was called alone and secretively to Delhi on March 28 and what parleys did the Indian state holds with him over there”, he asked.
