New Delhi [India] November 10 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader HS Phoolka on Tuesday questioned the account of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots mentioned in Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, claiming that the Army was called in on October 31, 1984, and said that such an account, if included in the book, would contradict official records.
Reacting to Sonia Gandhi’s account of Operation Blue Star and its aftermath in the memoir, Phoolka said he had purchased the book to verify the reference and would examine its contents before commenting further.
“I got several phone calls from media. They said Sonia Gandhi has written that during the 1984 Sikh massacre, the Army was called on 31st October itself. I have purchased the book to read whether this is indeed written in the book. If this is written in the book, it is against the records. It is absolutely false,” he said.
Referring to official records and the findings of the Misra Commission, Phoolka said the Army was called in only on the evening of November 1 and reached Delhi the following evening.
“As per the official record by the Commission, by the Govt, the Army was called in on the evening of 1st November and the Army arrived only on the evening of 2nd November. In its report, Misra Commission stated that 5000 Army personnel were available within Delhi and they were not deployed. Misra Commission stated that had they been deployed, lives of 2000 Sikhs could have been saved,” he said.
Phoolka further said he would examine the memoir and point out any discrepancies between its account and the records.
“So, I will read the book and show that whatever falsehood has been written, it has been written to mislead people,” he added.
Responding to the memoir’s account of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s emotional reaction following Operation Blue Star, Phoolka questioned the portrayal and referred to a fact-finding report prepared by Justice Tarkunde’s team.
“…This doesn’t seem to be true. In September, Justice Tarkunde’s team wrote a fact-finding report on Operation Blue Star. Actual postmortem report was included in the report. The entire team was arrested and the report was banned,” he said.
Questioning the account of Indira Gandhi’s alleged remorse, Phoolka added, “If you look at the actual facts, you won’t find any regrets or tears. It might be crocodile tears.”
The release of Sonia Gandhi’s memoirs “Belonging: A Journey of Love” ignited a sharp political row on Tuesday, drawing simultaneous attacks from both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over its framing of Operation Blue Star and UPA-era governance.
In her memoir, Sonia Gandhi recalled that as Indira Gandhi watched a video of the aftermath of the Operation.
“As my mother-in-law watched the slow moving record, i could see her face wet with tears-tears of pain and regret, I think: sorrow at the manner in which the seige has ended, at the large number of lives lost.” she wrote.
The memoir, published by HarperCollins in India, went on sale on Tuesday. It traces Sonia Gandhi’s journey from her childhood in post-war Italy and her romance with Rajiv Gandhi at Cambridge to her life in India and the personal losses that shaped her bond with the country, including the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.(ANI)
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