CHANDIGARH—Former Chief Minister of Punjab and Congress working committee member Captain Amarinder Singh held a press conference along with some other Congress MLAs where he asked sitting Chief Minister Parkash Badal to clarify whether he met a senior union minister in New Delhi before going into the hiding ahead of the Indian army attack on Sri Darbar Sahib Sri Amritsar.
He said, “People of Punjab keep keen interest in knowing about Badal’s role and stand on June ’84 holocaust. Particularly, when he had gone into hiding that led to many suspicions about his disappearance.”
Capt Amarinder reiterated that Badal before, during, and after the attack was not in jail as he claimed falsely, and deliberately went into hiding for the reasons best known to him. He also made several documents public about the events of June 1984.
Amarinder disclosed that on May 26, 1984, Badal, accompanied by Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Surjit Singh Barnala, met central Congress leaders including Mr PV Narsimha Rao, Mr Shiv Shankar, and Mr Pranab Mukherjee. He said, immediately after, Mr Tohra came to Patiala while Mr Barnala went to Chandigarh and Mr Badal stayed back only to be seen in Bazpur a few days later.
He held that Badal was equally responsible for the attack on the holiest Sikh shrine. He said that Badal was one of the main reasons for leading the Sikh Nation to such a situation. “Mr Badal is an outright coward”, he remarked, while asserting that he always ran away from the situation and never let any solution come up. He blamed Mr Badal for always trying to exploit the situation for his narrow political ends.
On the other hand, Capt Amarinder favored opponents of the Sikh freedom struggle, questioning Badal’s silence prevailed over the killings of those including Congress and RSS leaders.
Moreover, he denied the fact that wrongdoers of the November 1984 massacre were not punished. He said that it was wrong to say that nobody was punished for the massacre. He pointed out the fact that 442 people were convicted for the carnage of whom 49 were sentenced to life imprisonment and 3 for ten years or more imprisonment. Besides, he added, six police officials were also punished for various lapses during the genocide.
The former Chief Minister asked Badal why he was quiet about the role of RSS and BJP leaders in the 1984 carnage.
Capt Amarinder cited reference to senior BJP leader LK Advani’s claims in his autobiography My Country My Life where he has boasted of speaking in the parliament and meeting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi seeking military action in Sri Darbar Sahib. “Why have you not asked Mr Advani to apologise?” he asked Badal.
During the press conference, Capt also demonstrated a rare photograph showing Mr Advani leading a delegation to the then PM with a banner demanding army action on Darbar Sahib.
Denying Badal’s claims that he had spent a significant portion of his life in jail, Amarinder made clear, in total, he (Badal) did not spend more than five years in jail. “Actually he spent just 18 months in jail and that was during emergency and rest of the time was spent comfortably in state guest houses and the entire time period does not add up to even five years”, he added.
Other Congress MLAs present in the conference were Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhi Randhawa, Gurkirat Kotli, Navtej Cheema, and Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
