New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Wednesday criticised senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over her description of the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's "emotional response" to Operation Blue Star, terming the Rajya Sabha MP's memoir as 'Journey of Hate'.
This comes after Sonia Gandhi in her memoir 'Belonging: A Journey of Love' wrote about how Indira Gandhi was left in tears after watching footage of the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, distressed by the damage to the Golden Temple and the large number of lives lost in the Army operation in June 1984.
Addressing a press conference, Sirsa said: "This was a journey of hate, not a journey of love. I will tell you about all the lies in this book and what its real title should have been."
He claimed that the book "attempts to justify the scars of 1984", which, the Delhi Minister said, were inflicted by the Gandhi family.
"Sonia Gandhi has written this book as she has started feeling that they (Congress) will never come to power again, as otherwise, they thought that the family's image can be whitewashed by repeatedly returning to power," he added.
Sirsa then read out an excerpt from Sonia Gandhi's memoir.
Mentioning about a film bought to Indira Gandhi by an intelligence official containing visuals of the operation's aftermath, Sonia Gandhi wrote, "As my mother-in-law watched the slow-moving record, I could see her face wet with tears—tears of pain and regret, I think: Sorrow at the manner in which the siege had ended, at the large number of lives lost."
Hitting back at Sonia Gandhi, Manjinder Singh Sirsa said: "This is absolutely a lie."
He also claimed that ahead of Operation Blue Star, "information was sought from British intelligence, this was the first time that such a thing took place in an independent country."
"According to British document, British Military advisor prepared a contigency plan and handed it to the Indian Intelligence in February 1984. Before the attack, Indira Gandhi took support from the England's Army, not of India's," Sirsa added.
The Delhi Minister claimed that Operation Blue Star was carried out to "ensure that the Sikhs were taught a lesson because they had opposed Indira Gandhi during the Emergency".
"This attack was intended to punish them," he said.
Sirsa also accused the late Indira Gandhi of "deliberately choosing" the martyrdom anniversary of Guru Arjan Dev to launch Operation Blue Star in June 1984.
"Today, India's Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) pays tribute to the (Sikh) Gurus on their martyrdom anniversaries and shares messages of respect. But what did the then Prime Minister do? She chose the day of Guru Arjan Dev ji's martyrdom anniversary, when the maximum number of women and children would be present there (at the Golden Temple)," he said.
"Indira Gandhi never expressed regret for the massacre of Sikhs or the attack on the holy shrine of Sri Darbar Sahib," Sirsa added while referring to the killing of scores of Sikh devotees during the military operation at the Golden Temple and the state-led initiative to reconstruct the damaged physical structure of the Akal Takht despite the community's objections, who viewed it as direct government encroachment on their religious sovereignty and an attempt to mask the destruction.
Moreover, the Delhi Minister highlighted that apart from 'Darbar Sahib' (Golden Temple), 40 more gurdwaras were also attacked as part of the 1984 Operation.
"This has not been mentioned anywhere by Sonia Gandhi in her book," he said.
