A fierce political storm hit Punjab after the Shiromani Akali Dal slammed Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over revelations that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wept upon seeing devastation from Operation Blue Star inside the Golden Temple.
Sonia Gandhi laid out the account in her forthcoming memoir, titled "Belonging: A Journey of Love", set for release on Tuesday. In an interview ahead of the launch, she stated that tears rolled down her mother-in-law's face when aides showed her images of the destruction inside the Amritsar complex in June 1984. She added that the former prime minister anticipated violent retribution, instructed family members on what to do if she died, and urged a young Rahul Gandhi to stay brave and avoid tears.
Shiromani Akali Dal dismissed the account as hollow posturing.
"The Congress committed genocide against Sikhs and innocent Sikhs were murdered," said SAD spokesperson Arshdeep Singh Kler, rejecting any expression of personal anguish by the Gandhi family. He asserted that the military operation was a pre-planned assault directed at Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the highest temporal seat of Sikh authority, leaving scars that continue to ache across generations. Kler challenged the Congress leadership to sit directly with families who lost relatives and watched their homes burn in the 1984 anti-Sikh violence to comprehend the full scale of the community's trauma.
Yet Congress leaders fought back.
Party working president Raj Kumar Verka insisted that Congress has never justified the military raid on the shrine, maintaining that the party stands firmly with Punjab and its people. He pointed directly to repeated visits by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to the Golden Temple complex, where both leaders have paid respects and offered prayers.
The clash drags the painful legacy of 1984 back to the centre of Punjab's political battleground, just hours before Gandhi's memoir reaches bookstores nationwide on Tuesday.