Akalis, BJP equally responsible for Operation Bluestar: Amarinder Singh

AMRITSAR: Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said the Akalis and BJP were as much responsible for the Operation Bluestar as the Congress which was then in power both at the Centre and in the state.

Singh, who is the Congress candidate from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, said while the Operation Bluestar was carried out by the Congress government, SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal and BJP leader L K Advani had recommended it.

The Congress candidate claimed both Badal and Advani were equally responsible for the operation against Sikh militants hiding in the Golden Temple, and asked whether they were ready to apologise like Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had done.

Addressing a press meet here,Singh agreed to a suggestion that a 'Fact Finding Commission' could be set up to reveal the actual truth about the Operation Bluestar and the people responsible for it.

On reply to Singh's comments about Advani, senior BJP leader and party candidate from the seat Arun Jaitley said, "Well I did not know that Capt Amarinder Singh had such a poor impression of (then Prime Minister) Indira Gandhi that she was acting under Advani's pressure."

"...She is no more in this world. So he (Singh) should show a better tribute to her than saying she acted under Advani's pressure," Jaitley added.