Akali Dal questions Congress, Rahul over Operation Bluestar

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Saturday asked Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to explain if his family had deliberately attacked the Golden Temple in 1984 with the aim of destroying the symbol of Sikh faith and taken advice and help from the United Kingdom government to make this conspiracy successful.

In a statement here, former minister and SAD General Secretary Bikram Majithia said the recent disclosures by British Sikh MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi about the help extended by the UK government to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to plan and execute Operation Bluestar on the Golden Temple complex, which houses the holiest of Sikh shrines -- the Harmandir Sahib.

"It has become clear that the aim was not to flush out militants as claimed. This could be done in many ways. But the manner in which the attack was carried out with foreign help using helicopter gunships and tanks indicate it was carried out deliberately to destroy the symbol of the Sikh faith," Majithia said.

Dhesi, UK's first turban-wearing MP who is on a private visit to Punjab, had told the media that he would pitch for an independent inquiry into the role of the UK government in Operation Bluestar.

The Indian Army carried out Operation Bluestar in June 1984 to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple complex.

Majithia said this was the reason why the Gandhi family had never offered an unqualified apology for the attack on the Sikh race.

"Rahul Gandhi has never expressed remorse, forget seeking forgiveness from the community for attacking their supreme religious places and butchering its members en masse in massacres engineered by his family members," he added.

"Even now the Gandhi family was keeping a studied silence on the issue of seeking help from the UK government to attack the Golden Temple. After disclosures that a security adviser from the UK visited India and that those storming into the Darbar Sahib complex were given training by the UK's elite SAS (special forces), the Gandhi family has not thought it fit to explain its actions.

"The family should apologise for seeking help to suppress Sikhs from the British who suppressed the country and butchered its freedom fighters. This amounts to disrespecting the freedom fighters also," he added.

Saying, it was never too late to express remorse and beg forgiveness from the Sikh community, Majitha asked Rahul Gandhi to "come clean and lay bare the entire conspiracy" hatched by his grand-mother to strike against the Sikh race besides seeking forgiveness for the same.

--IANS

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