Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt. Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that the party was in favour of setting up a peace memorial in memory of all those who lost their lives during the dark days of terror in Punjab. The party said, setting up a memorial about Operation Bluestar within the precincts of the Darbar Sahib will defile it sanctity.
“You can’t raise a memorial to anybody parallel to the Darbar Sahib and Akal Takhat Sahib,” he asserted. Besides, he added, the memorial should be for peace and harmony and not for mistrust and disharmony.
Addressing a press conference here Tuesday, Capt. Amarinder appealed to all the Punjabis in general and the Sikhs, in particular, to think seriously as where the Akalis were heading for. He said, it was the issue of the sanctity of the Holiest Shrine of the Sikhs and no memorials should be allowed to be raised parallel to it.
Condemning Mr Badal for facilitating the honouring of Balwant Singh Rajoana, the assassin of late Beant Singh, he said, it was shameful as how Mr Badal as chief minister had presided over the self proclaimed assassin of another chief minister who laid down his life for peace and harmony in the state.
The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president said, the chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had once again behaved in a cowardly manner and succumbed to the pressure of the radicals. He said, had Mr Badal summoned the guts and courage and put down his foot the memorial would not have come up inside the Darbar Sahib.
He pointed out, the Darbar Sahib has been attacked on a number of occasions earlier also but never were any memorials set up inside.