LUDHIANA: The SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra on Dec.30 said that if Indira Gandhi had agreed to a formula worked out by the Akalis and three senior cabinet ministers. Operation Bluestar could have been avoided. But she was determined to humiliate the Sikhs he alleged. Tohra claimed for the first time that he along with Prakash Singh Badal and Sujit Singh Barnala were flown to Delhi by a government plane on May 26,1984 Three ministers of Mrs.Gandhis cabinet Mr. Pranab Mukherjee Mr. Venkataraman and Mr Shiv Shankar and some senior Officials held talks with them.

The Akali leaders put forth five Gernades First Chandigarh should be declared capital of Punjab which Haryana could share for some years the Anandpur Sahib resolution should be referred to the Sarkaria commission by the government through a notification; the river water issue should be settled at national and international conventions and also referred 10 the Supreme Court by the government; Punjabi should be declared as second language of the neighboring State and finally the government should set up a linguistic commission to determine the Punjabi-speaking areas with the village as a unit. The Akalis had never wanted a small Punjabi-speaking state and had also Sought Karnal 10 be included in the Punjabi suba.

Tohra who was presiding over a Seminar on Maharaja Dalip Singh and his times here said that the three ministers returned to say Sorry Madam is not agreeing to the formula. They returned disappointed.

No Justice Tohra said the authors of the various books on Operation Bluestar™ had not done justice to the Sikhs. He was also maligned by them; they did not contact him to seek his views but called him ambitious and held him responsible for Operation Bluestar. He dismissed the white paper issued by the government as a bundle of lies.

He urged historians to project the Sikhs in a proper perspective and rewrite the account of Operation Bluestar

Earlier the former Indian high commissioner in UK Kuldip Nayar inaugurated the seminar; He said SGPC Should set up museum on the historical relics of Punjab including weapons and other symbols of historical importance

Nayar urged the Akali leaders to take the Hindus of Punjab along with them. Only then would they get power in the state

Article extracted from this publication >> January 7, 1994