Chandigarh: Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said that the Centre will withdraw its petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against a decision taken by an Amritsar court last year to provide compensation to 40 Sikhs arrested from the Golden Temple complex following Operation Blue Star.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal said, “In 1984, when the Congress attacked the Darbar Sahib, there were many pilgrims who had come to pay obeisance, but the then government arrested them and put them behind bars for five long years. They moved the court, which directed the government to compensate them.”
The compensation was to be borne by the Centre and the Punjab government in equal measure, but the central government has been opposing this for long.
She added, “Now, Rajnath Singh has assured us that the appeal filed against this verdict will be withdrawn and the compensation will be provided to the detenues.”
Claiming that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had hatched a conspiracy to attack the Golden Temple, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said, “The de-classified documents regarding Operation Bluestar in the UK reveal that Indira Gandhi was planning to carry out an attack on the Golden Temple for two years. She had also written a letter to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Congress had stooped too low to win an election by attacking the Darbar Sahib.”
“We have asked the Union Home Minster to procure those de-classified documents from Britain and make them public here in India,” she added.
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