Rare manuscripts still lying with Govt, says SGPC secy

With Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal taking up the matter with PrimeMinister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Defence Minister against the backdropof the CBI version, what Manjit Singh says is significant.

The CBI version, in fact, matches a written reply earlier submitted byFernandes in the Rajya Sabha to a question from former SGPC chief GurcharanSingh Tohra and Sukhdev Singh Libra. In a letter written to the SGPC lastmonth, however, he changed his stance and claimed that the library articleswere with the CBI. The agency denies this.

When contacted on the matter, Tohra told The Indian Express that he was injail when the CBI returned some material to the SGPC, which included only afew weapons, currency notes and books. Before Operation Bluestar, the GoldenTemple library had had around 2,500 copies of handwritten and early printsof the scriptures, manuscripts and original hukamnamas written by GuruHargobind and Guru Gobind Singh, besides rare books.

Manjit Singh had been the first SGPC official to initiate a move forrestoration of the precious manuscripts and other material. He claimed allthe Centre returned was account books and other records of the SGPC, whichit had seized as it suspected secret funding to the SGPC. He adds that theSGPC records were restored on court orders, and claims he was able to trace97 paintings and five manuscripts taken away from the Golden Temple complexmuseum to the archives in Patiala, which were later brought back. He saidthe Centre returned about Rs 30 lakh and a few kilograms of gold and silveras well.

However, according to the official version of the events, the Golden Templelibrary had caught fire during Operation Bluestar. The white paper issued bythe Centre in July, 1984, stated: “Troops effected entry into the areaaround the sarovar through northern Deori and the Southern Library building.In the latter area, the terrorists were firing from a number of machine-gunpositions in the library building and were hurtling country-made grenades,lighting them with match sticks. A fire was noticed at this stage in thelibrary. Troops fighting parties were repeatedly rushed to put out the fire,but these attempts were foiled by the heavy machine gunfire from theterrorists. By the time the terrorist positions could be overcome, thelibrary had been gutted.”

However, Manjit Singh questions this version, saying the articles were takenaway before setting the library on fire.