Report of UK involvement in Op Blue Star 'shocking beyond belief': Parkash Singh Badal

Unhappy over the disclosure that help had been sought from UK prior to Operation Blue Star, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today also expressed shock at the revelation that the British adviser's warning against use of the military option as the first course of action was ignored by the government of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. 

"I find it hard to believe that the prime minister of a sovereign nation would so humiliate her own people and country as to turn for military advice against its own citizens. This is the gravest sin against the Sikhs, the Punjabis and the people of India," Badal said in a statement here this evening. He said that the disclosure by British government also proved that all the past and present leaders of Congress had been "lying through their teeth" while claiming that the then Congress government had never wanted to carry out a raid in order to flush out militants from Golden Temple and that the decision of an army assault was a "sudden one".

"It is shocking beyond belief that (Indira) Gandhi went to such... extremes as to involve (India's) former colonial masters in dealing with what was essentially a deeply emotional, religious and political issue," Badal added. He said that the Congress-led UPA government should immediately quit on moral grounds.

In addition, they owe an immediate and unconditional apology to "the brave and patriotic Sikh community, the people of Punjab and the entire country for such an unbelievable and unpardonable" act, Badal said. Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation which took place in June, 1984.