After 35 years, Amritsar’s Ex-DC Ramesh Inder says he didn’t give permission for Operation Blue Star
Posted: 03 Jun 2019 12:06 AM PDTCHANDIGARH, Punjab—The former Indian civil servant Ramesh Inder Singh, who was the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar during the June-1984 holocaust, has stated that he had not given any permission to the Indian army to launch an armed attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib complex. Notably, Ramesh Inder Singh had assumed the charge as Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar on June 3 and there is a widespread perception among Sikhs that he was brought in Amritsar Sahib by sending the then Deputy Commissioner Gurdev Singh Brar on leave.
In an interview with a Punjabi vernacular, Ramesh Inder Singh has said that the letter asking Indian government to launch an army operation on Sri Harmandir Sahib complex was written by the then Home Secretary Amrik Singh Puni on being asked by the then Punjab governor B.D Pandey and Chief Secretary K.D Vasudev.
Refuting the allegations of giving permission for the army attack code-named as Operation Bluestar, Ramesh Inder Singh has said that he was neither aware of the army operation till his joining on June 3 nor he could interfere in this operation.
“DC Gurdev Singh Brar had applied for leave in April-1984 and the army operation had started when I took charge as a Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar on June 3,” he says while trying to prove his “innocence”.
He has further said that the army attack was not the last option at that time as there were also other possible solutions to tackle the situation.
Interestingly, he has also tried to bring down the number of causalities occurred during this inhumane army operation while claiming that only 800 persons lost lives in this operation.
“The Operation Bluestar had sledge-hammered the Punjab economy,” he said while shedding crocodile tears.