136. Pranab Mukherjee’s  biography nails Badal’s untruths

Jagtar Singh | January 28, 2016 |

 Jagtar Singh

Chandigarh, January 28: For years, Saint-Statesman Faqr-e-Qaum Panth Rattan and fifth time Punjab Chief minister Parlash Singh Badal has been in denial mode on the issue of secret meetings of the Akali leaders with representatives of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in the run up to Operation Bluestar, the abominable army attack on the Golden Temple complex beginning June 4, 1984.  More important of these meetings were held in 1984 and the only major political player from the team of Indira Gandhi today alive is now President of India Pranab Mukherjee. The second volume of his biography ‘The Turbulent Years’ is now out and it nails Badal on this sensitive issue. The truth must come out.

Altogether nine secret meetings were held beginning November 16, 1982 with the last being on May 26, 1984. Mukherjee talks about the meeting held on April 21in the lounge of the Chandigarh when the Akali leaders were brought there from  jail. Those present in that meeting from the side of the Akali Dal included, besides Badal, Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Surjit Singh Barnala, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia and Randhir Singh Cheema while the team of the ministers was represented by P V Narasimha Rao and Mukherjee. Mukherjee was  part of the team dealing with the Akalis.

He states in the biography: “Even a few days before Operation Bluestar, an attempt was made to find a solution by holding a meeting with the Akali Dal leaders who were brought from jail to the lounge of Chandigarh airport at midnight. PV Narasimha Rao, cabinet secretary Krishnaswamy Rao Sahib and I represented the government at that meeting. Unfortunately, the  talks remained unsuccessful”. This meeting was held on April 21, 1984.

It may be mentioned that this issue was earlier raised by former chief minister and now state Congress  president Capt Amarinder Singh who too was part of some of these meetings, including the one the Akali leaders had with Rajiv Gandhi on January 17, 1983 at 27, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. However, Badal has been denying these meetings all along.

Interestingly, while this meeting at Chandigarh airport was held on April 21, he rebutted the same within days of his release. Talking to the journalists at Amritsar on May 22, Badal denied any “informal” contact at any level with the Centre. He was specifically questioned about the meeting at Chandigarh airport. The Akali leaders were under detention at that time on the issue of Article 25 of the constitution that clubs Sikhs with the Hindus and amendment to the same was one of the Akali demands.

The last such meeting was held on May 26 about which Tohra went on the record.

However, it is pertinent to first go into the insight provided by Mukherjee  into the pre-Bluestar period.

Here is his account:  “By May 1984, it became increasingly clear that there was no alternative but military action to flush out the terrorists within the Golden Temple. Some believe that this course of action could have been avoided. But the reality that confronted the government at that time was that Bhindranwale and his followers had occupied and taken control of the Golden Temple, disregarding its sanctity. While some of us were worried about reaction of the Sikh community and whether drastic action would be counterproductive, leading to the flaring-up of communal tension, a final decision to storm the Golden Temple was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs. Its members at that time were the Prime Minister, Home Minister PV Narasimha rao, R Venkataraman (having taken over as Defence Minister), Energy Minister P Shiv Shankar and I. That day, no officials were present at the CCPA meet.

“I still vividly recall Mrs Gandhi telling me, ‘Pranab, I know of the consequences’. She understood the situation well and was clear that there was no other option. Aware that her own life was at risk, she took a conscious decision to go ahead in the best interest of the nation. It is easy to say that the military action could have been avoided. However, nobody really knows if any other option would have worked. Intelligence officials and the army both expressed confidence that they would be able to neutralize the militants in the Golden Templecomplex without much difficulty. No one anticipated the protracted resistance”.

Interestingly, Western Command chief Lt General K Sundarji started his press conference on June 6 in Chandigarh by paying tributes to the commitment and bravery of militants saying he wished he had 1000 such fighters.

Here is the account given by Tohra of May 26, 1984 meeting:  The Akalis were represented by Tohra, Badal and Barnala, and the government’s representatives included Narsimha Rao, Mukherjee and Shiv Shankar. The Akali leaders were air lifted from Chandigarh and taken to a guest house at R.K. Puram in Delhi. The formula discussed included the transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab within eight days, setting up of a commission for the left-out Punjabi-speaking areas, referring the river water dispute to the Supreme Court and the Anandpur Sahib Resolution to a commission. The Akali leadership proposed that the adjudication of the river waters dispute by the Supreme Court should be within the framework of the established riparian principles. The Akali leaders also pressed for declaration of Punjabi as second language in neighbouring Haryana and Delhi and enactment of the All India Gurdwara Legislation. Shiv Shankar wanted assurance on behalf of Sant Bhindranwale of which Tohra took the responsibility. The Akali leaders also suggested that Haryana could be given some areas from Uttar Pradesh in case the Centre had any apprehensions on that score. The meeting continued for more than four hours. It was for the first time that negotiators from the government had not raised many objections to the Akalis’s suggestions. The negotiators from the government side said they would meet them again after consulting the Prime Minister. It was around 4.30 in the evening when they returned and said, “Very sorry. Madam does not agree.” Indira Gandhi had rejected the formula. Operation Bluestar was on. Tohra shared the contents of these meetings years later.(Khalistan Struggle: A Non-movement, pp 167-8 ).

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