Now, Ramdev backs Bluestar Memorial

Yoga guru Ramdev on Thursday supported the controversial decision of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to build a memorial to those who were killed during Operation Bluestar while resisting the security forces sent into the Golden Temple in June 1984 to flush out the armed terrorists.

" It is a good thing if communities preserve and protect their heritage and self esteem," Ramdev said, while adding that political parties should refrain from making any statements on opposing the memorial.

He said that every community had the right to raise memorials in the "memory of those who sacrificed their lives for the religion".

He was responding to media queries on the constructing the memorial during his visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Ramdev also met Baba Harnam Singh Khalsa, chief of Damdami Taksal - a Sikh organisation whose 14th chief was Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the man behind the separate Khalistan movement - to seek his support for his proposed August 9 agitation against corruption and bringing back black money stashed abroad.

The yoga teacher, after paying obeisance at the Golden Temple, also visited the place where the memorial is coming up. Khalsa has been entrusted the job to raise the memorial.

Notably, while Congress and BJP have expressed reservations over the construction of the memorial, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, has been justifying the memorial saying it was being constructed in the memory of the "martyrs" of the 1984 Army operation.

Meanwhile, the Damdami Taksal chief said that Ramdev's support for the memorial would go a long way in removing doubts from the minds of people who had been opposing it "without any reason."

"I reiterate that the memorial would pose no threat to law and order. And with Baba Ramdev's support, there should be no doubt about that," Khalsa said, adding that Taksal would support Ramdev in his agitation against Black money and corruption.

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