Notice to Centre on articles, books recovered during Op Blue Star: Why the debate persists

What are the manuscripts and articles being talked about?

Sikh Reference Library at the Golden Temple was one of the projects in which Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s granddaughter Bamba, the founding member of Sikh History Society at Khalsa College, Amritsar, played a key role.

In 1950, the Sikh History Society – administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) – published a document detailing the holdings at Sikh Reference Library: 2,335 manuscripts and books in Punjabi, 10 in Assamese, 7 in Bengali, and 2 in Sindhi, plus one book in French. Later that year, around 400 books in English were added to the library.

In an interview after Operation Blue Star, Devinder Singh Duggal, then in-charge of the Sikh History Research Board, said the collection at the library had grown to around 2,500 manuscripts and about 20,000 items – including Birs (or saroops, which are authorised volumes) of the Guru Granth Sahib – before the Army action to free the Golden Temple complex of militants.

What is the Army’s position on this?

In December 1998, in reply to a question by then SGPC president and Rajya Sabha MP Gurcharan Singh Tohra, then Union Defence Minister George Fernandes said in Parliament: “The Army had removed certain items from the premises of the Golden Temple, Amritsar, in 1984. These included passports, office files / documents, booklets, pass books, identity cards, cheque books, registers, shastras (traditional weapons), gold and golden ornaments, silver and silver ornaments, precious stones, semi-precious stones, pearls, currency notes, coins, FDRs (fixed deposit receipts) and office stationery besides certain items of non-historical value.”

Fernandes added: “Of these, the Army had handed over some items like passports, office files / documents, booklets, pass books, identity cards, cheque books, diaries, registers to the Central Bureau of Investigation in July 1984 itself. The CBI in turn returned these documents to authorised representatives of the SGPC in October 1989. A few documents which were objectionable and thus destroyed, certain others were required in connection with the trial… Some other items of historical value, mostly shastras (traditional weapons), were handed over by the Army to the curator, Museum, Punjab Government, while valuables such as gold and golden ornaments, silver and silver ornaments, precious stones, semi-precious stones, pearls, govt currency notes worth Rs 30,93,926, coins and FDRs were handed over to the officiating treasury officer, Amritsar, on June 30, 1984, against a proper receipt.”

The minister concluded: “The Army is now not holding any other documents of historical nature. Every article or item removed from the Golden Temple premises has been accounted for by the Army.”

What has the government said?

On August 3, 2018, replying to an RTI by Sikh activist Gurvinder Singh Chadda, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs stated: “Around 4,000 documents / books / files / gold / gold ornaments, silver / silver ornaments, precious stone, currency were recovered by a Central agency during Operation Blue Star in 1984. The articles and documents were handed over either to the SGPC or to the Government of Punjab.”

What does the SGPC say?

The SGPC claims that 1,500 manuscripts, including 512 codices of the Guru Granth Sahib, are “missing”, and that some items that the CBI says it has returned can’t be found. Since 1984, the SGPC has sent 85 letters to the Union government in this regard.

As per the SGPC, the items returned by the Army include 205 handwritten Birs of the Guru Granth Sahib, 807 books, one handwritten edict of Guru Gobind Singh, and old World War I newspapers in installments.

In response to the petition by Satinder Singh being heard in the High Court, the SGPC has stated: “The SGPC prepared a blue register mentioning the articles / artifacts and list of 512 codices of Shri Guru Granth Sahib which were taken away by the Army during Operation Blue Star, but not returned to the SGPC till date.”

It added: “As per records, the total number of books in manuscripts of Pothis before Operation Blue Star 1984 were 12,613. Out of this, 56 books, 9 registers, 1 catalog wooden cabinet were received by the SGPC. Rest of the books are being demanded by the SGPC from the Central Bureau of Investigation.”

The SGPC added: “It is correct that various articles including 125 bags (containing) manuscripts, books etc were taken away by the Army during Operation Blue Star and handed over to the CBI… With regard to Toshakhana, only a historical chanani (canopy) was burnt to ash, which is preserved. Sixty manuscripts were received in 20 bags and the same are part of Sikh Reference Library.”

Incidentally, in 2004, a CBI trunk containing a revolver, old currency, documents, and a plastic mug, held at the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner’s office, was returned to the SGPC.