Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has sought an apology from Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for the Operation Bluestar. In a statement, former minister and SAD General Secretary Bikram Majithia asked 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.
Majithia said the recent disclosures by British Sikh MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi about the help extended by the UK government to then Indian 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. 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.
