20 years after Bluestar, texts still missing

[nanosecond]

20 years after Bluestar, texts still missing

GAJINDER SINGH

Chandigarh, Sept. 16: Twenty years after Operation Bluestar and a fortnight after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to try and locate rare manuscripts and books seized from the Golden Temple complex, there is no news of them.

The books and papers went missing from the Sikh Reference Library and the Central Sikh Museum after the army action in 1984.

“We have not received any intimation regarding the return of the articles seized from the library during and after the army action,” Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) secretary Dalmegh Singh said.

“We were hopeful that the Prime Minister, being a Sikh, would have directed the army, CBI and police authorities to return the rare manuscripts.”

The SGPC holds that over 16,000 artefacts relating to Sikh religion and history were taken away by the army in 190 bags after Operation Bluestar. Handwritten manuscripts and epics, verdicts of the 10 gurus, 20,000 rare books on Sikhism and 25,000 documents, including those on the freedom struggle, were seized. Diamonds, gold, silver, pearls and paintings were also taken away, alleges the SGPC.

Punjab and Haryana High Court, on a petition filed by Satwant Singh on April 29, has asked the state government to restore the seized articles to SGPC. The matter has since shuffled between the Union home ministry, the CBI, the army and the state government.

Initially, the army had said that the library was gutted in a fire on June 6, 1984, and everything inside destroyed.

However, two years ago, Ranjit Singh Nanda, a former inspector in Punjab police who was on deputation to

the CBI during Operation Bluestar, told SGPC the artefacts and manuscripts were ferried to a youth hostel after the army action, catalogued and sent to an unknown location by CBI. Nanda claims he has proof of this.

Responding to a letter from SGPC, then defence minister George Fernandes had said “the books and documents that were recovered from the Sikh Reference Library, Golden Temple, had been handed over to the CBI by the army”. Fernandes had advised SGPC to contact the ministry overseeing CBI to get the material back.

“But nothing happened. We believe that some of the material was burnt but more than 90 per cent is still intact and should be returned to the SGPC,” Dalmegh said.

The SGPC had written to several Prime Ministers, including Chandra Shekhar, V.P. Singh, I.K. Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

However, in response to repeated requests, it was either told that the “library was burnt to ashes” or “it (artefacts) was returned to the SGPC”.

The army returned only a few office files and passports of prospective pilgrims to Pakistan and little of historical value, the SGPC alleges.

After the Prime Minister signalled on his visit to Amritsar for the fourth centenary celebrations of the Granth Sahib that he would take steps to locate the missing books and papers, the SGPC is waiting for at least some of the material to be returned.

“We may not be able to get back all the things. But what pains us is the assertion that rare artefacts had been returned,” Dalmegh said.

[sarblohsingh2004]

VAheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Jee Kee FAteh !

I was emailed below:

From this news ... shows that Operation Bluestar

was an attack on the heart of Sikhi, trying to wipe out

our history - ... They took away Maharaaj di Saroop,

Guru de Hukamname "Handwritten manuscripts and epics,

verdicts of the 10 gurus, 20,000 rare books on Sikhism

and 25,000 documents, including those on the freedom

struggle, were seized" and then burnt the library. As

Joyce Pettigew quoted:

"The army went into Darbar Sahib not to eliminate a

political figure or a political movement but to

suppress the culture of a people, to attack their

hearts, and to strike a blow at their spirit and self-

confidence"

VAheguru Jee Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Jee Kee FAteh !

[sikhlionz]

we gotta get them back no matter what...

to think some CBI SUDHAYEE has is sitting their with arguably some of the most important texts for our religion, culture, community, ethnic group and nation.

We need to get groups like Amnesty back into Punjab NOW

We need to pressurise manmohan 2 return those texts

:lol:

[Deep Singh]

We won't get it back before we have a 'Sikh Investigation Bureau' [sIB]....FBI wale darge hunn. :lol:

serious...this is very serious issue.