SGPC expresses shock over ‘secret pact’ with Thatcher

T he Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has expressed shock and dismay over the reported disclosures of Britain having secretly aided India in the Operation Bluestar.

The SGPC sought details of this ‘secret pact’ and hoped that British Prime Minister David Cameron would not hide anything from the Sikh as well as the global community.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar termed the ‘secret alliance’ between then British government headed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and then India government as “highly condemnable and loathsome, that has shocked the Sikh community worldwide.”

Terming Operation Bluestar as a sad event that had shocked the Sikh community and hurt their feelings, Makkar said it was difficult to believe that Britain, which called itself the champion of human rights, should have conspired with the Indian government to attack a shrine before which the entire Sikh community bows its head. The June 1984 operation was a planned and calculated move by then Indian government to label the Sikhs as terrorists and defame them worldwide, he added.

“It is sad and shocking that a nation like Britain was part of the plot with the Indian government to destroy the Golden Temple, just to subdue a handful of persons. The entire Sikh community felt the impact of the Operation and they were shattered,” the SGPC chief said.

“All those who had conspired to launch and carry out the June 1984 attack on the Golden Temple will never be forgiven by the Sikh community, which has always been peace-loving. Their names will be engraved in black letters in history books,” the statement added.