Rejecting reports of involvement of the Margaret Thatcher government in Operation Bluestar, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid on Thursday said there were no records indicating this and the entire operation was carried out by the Indian army.
"Our records do not indicate anything. The general who was involved, General (Kuldip Singh) Brar, has also clarified that it was an army operation planned by the army entirely. Therefore, I am not quite sure there is much for me to add in terms of value or information," he said on the sidelines of an event.
Khurshid said if there was some formal communication, "they (British) would tell us what they have found and it was only after that would the government be in a position to comment on it."
Declassified documents in the UK indicated that Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) officials had been despatched to help India in the planning on the 1984 operation.
However, British foreign secretary William Hague had said that Britain's role was "limited" and "purely advisory" and had little impact on the actual assault.
On the Shiromani Akali Dal demanding an unconditional apology from both governments on the issue, Khurshid said, "Apologies for what? Apology for a paper that has come out? Or apology for what happened? The whole world knows that what happened was a tragic event and under what circumstances we intervened. We know the price of that intervention to the nation and our humanity as a whole." He added, "Should we now be re-opening wounds of the past or should we all collectively and together try to heal those wounds and ensure we continue to move forward in peace rather than score points on each other."
{{/usCountry}}On the Shiromani Akali Dal demanding an unconditional apology from both governments on the issue, Khurshid said, "Apologies for what? Apology for a paper that has come out? Or apology for what happened? The whole world knows that what happened was a tragic event and under what circumstances we intervened. We know the price of that intervention to the nation and our humanity as a whole." He added, "Should we now be re-opening wounds of the past or should we all collectively and together try to heal those wounds and ensure we continue to move forward in peace rather than score points on each other."
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