Amritsar, July 14
Even as Amritsar’s former Deputy Commissioner Sarbjit Singh has alleged that Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra the then SGPC chief, had a clue about the impending Operation Bluestar, his (Mr Tohra’s) close confidant, Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta, described it as an “official version”.
In his book “Black Thunder — an eye witness account of militancy in Punjab”, the former Deputy Commissioner made the above allegations on the basis of his conversation with Mr Tohra who was under arrest.
“While under detention in 1988, Tohra happened to be shifted to Amritsar for the treatment of his eyes. Because of the extreme danger to him from the militants in Amritsar jail, I kept him in a remote canal rest house at Khalra which I had declared as a jail. Since this is located right on the Pakistan border, he suspected it to be a conspiracy to eliminate him and refused to eat food. I met him to explain my reasons for keeping him there and managed to allay his fear.
“After that a relaxed Tohra told me that during one of the meetings in 1983 it fell from Rajiv’s (Gandhi) mouth that if the Congress was to please the Hindu vote bank it would send the Army into the Golden Temple. Tohra took exception to this observation and expressed his views to Rajiv also. Later he protested to Ms Gandhi (Indira) that since such an idea had come into their mind they would surely one day send the Army into the Golden Temple. Ms Gandhi took pains to assure Tohra that, come what may no such thing would ever happen”.
Mr Sarbjit Singh, who quoted a number of secret meetings between the Akali leaders and the Prime Minister, Union Ministers and top bureaucrats of the country during the “darkest days for the Sikhs” said it was the duty of Mr Tohra to mobilise public opinion against the impending Army operation.
The book reads: “Tohra may then have protested vehemently only to embarrass Delhi but, seemingly, he did not take Rajiv’s slips seriously, for it was allegedly he alone who pressurised Giani Kirpal Singh, Jathedar of Akal Takht, to let Bhindranwale move from Nanak Niwas to the sanctuary of the Akal Takht in December, 1983. I did not ask Tohra whether the other leaders joined in the protest? But his narration had implied that he alone had protested. The advisers of Rajiv may have felt that the signing of the accord (Rajiv-Longowal) and the give-and-take in its implementation would be easier with Surjit Singh Barnala, rather than with Tohra and Parkash Singh Badal.”
Coming to the rescue of his mentor, Mr Manjit Singh Calcutta claimed that the Central Government had been spreading ‘disinformation’ about Mr Tohra, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, then president of the Shiromani Akali Dal and ‘morcha dictator’, much before the infamous Operation Bluestar. First of all, the Central Government brought Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale through Giani Zail Singh with the sole motive of weakening the established Akali leadership. Then they (the established Akali leaders, including Mr Tohra) were accused of playing into the hands of the intelligence agencies. He claimed that the ‘white paper’ brought out by the then Central Government had accused that Mr Tohra and Sant Longowal had surrendered before the Army which was a “bundle of lies”. He said the fact was that both Mr Tohra and Sant Longowal were captured from a room in the Teja Singh Samunderi Hall along with 40 other leaders. “When they (Sant Longowal and Mr Tohra) were being carried out in an Army vehicle, a grenade was lobbed with a view to killing them. Mr Calcutta further claimed that when Mr Tohra came to know that CRPF jawans had fired on the Golden Temple complex, rushed to Amritsar from Anandpur Sahib despite his bad health condition. Mr Calcutta alleged that there was a conspiracy to malign Mr Tohra who enjoyed a “clean image”.
Mr Calcutta claimed that it was the Army which lifted the curfew for an hour on June 5 to allow the militants, including Baba Gurbachan Singh Chahal, chief Bhindranwale Tiger Force, to escape from the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar. “The telephone lines which were restored for an hour were again snapped when an anonymous caller enquired whether Mr Tohra and Sant Longowal were in the SGPC complex. When contacted, Mr Tohra refused comment.
