REFERRING TO Operation Blue Star, senior Congress leader and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said Friday that the 1984 “attack” on the Golden Temple was “wrong” and his party had apologised for it. He also accused the BJP-RSS of exerting pressure on the then government to carry out the Army operation at the shrine. At a press conference at the AICC office in New Delhi, Channi, when asked about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler's role in a case, said: “On several occasions, the Congress has apologised for the riots that happened and the attack. That it happened during the Congress tenure.The attack on Harmandir Sahib was wrong, the Congress has accepted this and apologised as well. Whoever needs to be punished, the BJP has been in power for 10 years now, why doesn't it punish them… They keep talking about it.” He said the BJP should accept that it exerted pressure on the then government for the Army operation. “The BJP put pressure to send the Army to Harmandir Sahib.. BJP’s Advaniji in his book ‘My Country, My Life’ had endorsed that he ran a movement that the Army be sent to Harmandir Sahib, and the people there should be caught and killed,” Channi said. Although Channi said the Congress has apologised for Operation Blue Star, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) former general secretary and member Gurcharan Singh Grewal said the party had apologised for only the riots. “It sounds good when Rahul Gandhi talks about the rights of Sikhs. If he is not talking about Sikh rights due to his political obligations, then he must make the Congress apologise for the Army attack on the Akal Takht. Can he do that? The Congress used the face of Dr Manmohan Singh to apologise for the massacre of Sikhs in November 1984,” Grewal said. He said that apology “meant nothing when the main accused in the violence” continued to “enjoy prominent positions in the Congress, even under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi”. “I don’t see any humble or genuine apology coming from the Congress in the near future. That would require a complete overhaul of the Congress, only then can the party realise how it actually committed all those acts against the Sikhs, for which it now accuses the BJP,” Grewal said. Incidentally, when Gandhi offered prayers at the Golden Temple on January 10 last year, he did not receive any official welcome from the SGPC, which usually honours dignitaries at the information office. The SGPC, which is the apex body for gurdwaras, had then said the Congress leader should have tendered an apology for the 1984 “attack on Akal Takht”. Flanked by Punjab Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, Channi also alleged that the BJP is using Sikhs as a front to threaten Rahul Gandhi. “This is wrong, and it is not good for Indian democracy,” he said. On the allegation that Gandhi insulted the Sikh community during his visit to the US, Bajwa said: “What he did was he asked a Sikh brother his name, and said that an atmosphere is being created in the country where everyone – on the basis of language, states, minorities, caste – is being targeted. I want to assure that the INDIA bloc will support all communities.” “I would want to reiterate that we strongly support what Rahul ji said. What he said was true,” Bajwa said.
