HS Phoolka pointed to findings from the Misra Commission to demonstrate that the Army was not called immediately upon Indira Gandhi's death as claimed in the memoir, but was instead formally requested on November 1 and deployed on November 2. He stated that using 5,000 available military personnel on the morning of November 1 could have preserved an estimated 2,000 lives. Additionally, Phoolka contested the book's depiction of Indira Gandhi weeping over Operation Blue Star footage, citing the arrest of a fact-finding team led by Justice VM Tarkunde that documented postmortems from the Golden Temple complex.
Key points
Historical records cited by HS Phoolka contradict Sonia Gandhi's assertions regarding the…: Historical records cited by HS Phoolka contradict Sonia Gandhi's assertions regarding the immediate deployment of the military during the 1984 violence.
The delayed deployment of ready military forces exacerbated the overall scale of civilian…: The delayed deployment of ready military forces exacerbated the overall scale of civilian deaths in Delhi.
State suppression of the Tarkunde committee's postmortem findings challenges narrative de…: State suppression of the Tarkunde committee's postmortem findings challenges narrative depictions of Indira Gandhi's remorse over Operation Blue Star.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
NEW DELHI: BJP leader and senior advocate HS Phoolka has challenged Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's account of the 1984 anti-Sikh violence and Operation Blue Star in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, alleging that some of the details contradict official records and historical documents.He has questioned her account of when the Army was called in following Indira Gandhi's assassination and also disputed her description of the former prime minister's emotional reaction to Operation Blue Star.Speaking to news agency ANI, Phoolka said he had received several calls from media organisations seeking his response to Sonia Gandhi's account that the Army was called in on October 31, 1984, the day then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
"I got several phone calls from media. They said Sonia Gandhi has written that during the 1984 Sikh massacre, the Army was called on 31st October itself. I have purchased the book to read whether this is indeed written in the book. If this is written in the book, it is against the records. It is absolutely false," Phoolka told ANI.Referring to the Misra…
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