Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal engaged in a war of words on Twitter on Saturday, 13 April, over Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal criticised Amarinder Singh for not seeking an apology from the Gandhi family for Operation Blue Star.
Amarinder Singh had tweeted a pic of him greeting Rahul Gandhi at the Amritsar airport.
Harsimrat Kaur did not take this lightly. She put out two tweets. In one, she said while Amarinder Singh should seek apology from the British government for Jallianwala Bagh massacre, he must also seek an apology from Gandhis for Operation Blue Star.
In another tweet, she hit out at the CM again and said he “lacked the courage to ask him [Rahul Gandhi] to admit Congress’ sin of demolishing Sikhs' highest religio-temporal seat with tanks & mortars.”
Operation Blue Star was the code name given to the military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi in 1984 to June 1984 to remove militant Sikhs who were accumulating weapons in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, to establish control over it.
Amarinder Singh was also quick to respond to and put out a tweet that talked about her family connections to General Dyer, the officer who ordered the British troops to fire in Jallianwala Bagh.
“Did you, your husband @officeofssbadal or his father, Prakash Singh Badal, ever apologise for your great grandfather, Sardar Sunder Singh Majithia’s lavish dinner to Gen Dyer on the day of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre? He was later knighted in 1926 for his loyalty and his deeds,” he asked.
Over 90 British Indian Army soldiers, commanded by Colonel Reginald Dyer, opened fire at over 20,000 unarmed crowd holding a pro-independence demonstration, which resulted in hundreds of deaths.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)