Operation Blue Star in Punjab campaign, Akali Dal reminds voters of ‘Congress hand’

AT RALLIES held by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal this election, one prominent poster is omnipresent. It displays a photo of the damaged Akal Takht at Golden Temple after Operation Blue Star, with Badal appealing to voters to keep in mind what “the Congress did in 1984” when they cast their ballot on June 1.

Across the state, similar mega-size posters have been put up by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex elected body of the Sikhs which is controlled by the SAD, as the party tries to harden its Panthic politics taking advantage of the fact that June 1 coincides with the 40th anniversary of Operation Blue Star – the controversial Army action to vacate the Sikh holy shrine of militants.

While the Congress is the principal target of the posters as Indira Gandhi led the government at the Centre during Operation Blue Star – which lasted from June 1 to June 6, 1984 – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and SAD may also lose votes in some seats if the narrative takes hold.

The constituencies where the results could be affected are Faridkot, Sangrur and Khadoor Sahib and, to some extent, Bathinda. While the son of Beant Singh, one of the killers of Indira Gandhi over the Golden Temple operation, is a candidate in Faridkot; in Sangrur, radical SAD (A) leader Simranjit Singh Mann is the sitting MP and again on the ballot. Controversial preacher and Khalistan advocate Amritpal Singh, who is jailed under the NSA after an attack on a police station, is one of the candidates from Khadoor Sahib; while Lakha Sidhana, a gangster-turned-activist, is contesting as an Independent from Bathinda.

An SGPC poster in Faridkot city says, “An attack from the then Congress government from June 01 to June 06… Na