Declassify all Bluestar documents, let truth be out, says Amarinder

With the controversy over the role of various governments and top leaders in Operation Bluestar – the 1984 army operation in the Golden Temple complex – heating up in recent weeks, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said all documents pertaining to that time should be declassified.

“The documents with the Central government and the Punjab government should be declassified now. Let the truth come out on who did what at that time,” Amarinder Singh said here.Amarinder had resigned from parliament and the Congress after the then prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered the army inside the Golden Temple complex, which is home to the Harmandar Sahib, the holiest of Sikh shrines, in June 1984.

He has been questioning the role of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during that period.

Badal equally responsible

“He was hobnobbing with Central leaders in Delhi at that time. Just before Operation Bluestar, he went into hiding. He is telling lies that he was under arrest when the army operation took place. He was arrested a few days after the incident. He is equally responsible for Operation Bluestar. He is a coward,” Amarinder said.

“Badal before, during and after Operation Bluestar was a free man and deliberately went into hiding for reasons best known to him. There are several documents about 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,” the former chief minister said.

Clarify meeting

“Badal should clarify his meeting with a Central minister just days before the operation and his subsequent going into hiding,” he demanded.“He was involved in the negotiations before Operation Bluestar. On May 26, 1984, Badal, along with (then SGPC president) Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Surjit Singh Barnala met Central leaders including P V Narsimha Rao, Shiv Shankar and Pranab Mukherjee,” Amarinder said.

“Immediately after, Tohra came to Patiala while Barnala went to Chandigarh and Badal stayed back only to be seen in Bazpur a few days later. This is leading to a lot of suspicion about his voluntary disappearance,” Amarinder added.

A controversy broke out recently, 30 years after Operation Bluestar, when documents of the British government revealed that India had sought British advice before ordering the flushing out of heavily armed militants led by separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple complex.