Amarinder Singh accuses BJP of 'double standards' on Blue Star issue

AMRITSAR: Congress candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Amarinder Singh today accused BJP nominee Arun Jaitley of having "double standards" on the issues of Operation Blue Star and setting up a Blue Star Memorial for those who died within the precincts of the Golden Temple here.

"You can't run with the hare and hunt with the hounds like Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal," Amarinder said in a statement issued here while seeking a clarification from Jaitley on his party's stand on the two issues.

Taking a swipe at the senior BJP leader, he said it needs moral courage to "call spade a spade", admit a wrong and apologise for it, adding, "I understand your majboori (helplessness) but what about your conscience, isn't that pinching you?"

Amarinder maintained that it was not just ironical but hypocritical of Jaitley to oppose the construction of the Blue Star Memorial on one hand and enjoy the hospitality of the Siromani Akali Dal (SAD), which got it constructed for "narrow partisan reasons".

He said Operation Blue Star was a great tragedy and a wrong decision.

Amarindder said, while he personally opposed it and resigned from the party and the Parliament to protest against it at that time, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had apologised for the same.

"But what about the BJP whose senior leaders like L K Advani have proudly claimed to have pressurised Indira Gandhi (the then Prime Minister) to send Army into the Golden temple?," he claimed.

"May be it was the same camaraderie between Advani and Badal that while the former openly sought military action in Golden temple and the latter supported it during a secret meeting with the then Union Home Minister P V Narsimha Rao and senior central government functionaries in New Delhi on May 26, 1984 where he recommended military action in Darbar Sahib," Amarinder alleged.