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Tajeshwar stands by Sarabjit's book on Punjab militancy

Tajeshwar Singh, eminent television personality and managing director of Sage Publications, said on Friday that his company is willing to fight a legal battle if Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra files a defamation suit against Sarabjit Singh, author of Operation Black Thunder, a book published by Sage.

The book is at the centre of a controversy sparked by former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal's allegation at a press conference in Chandigarh two weeks ago that Tohra, a former president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, had given his tacit approval to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's move to send troops into the Golden Temple complex in Operation Bluestar to flush out terrorists in 1984.

Badal claimed that this had been revealed in Sarabjit Singh's book. In response, Tohra threatened to sue both Badal as well as Sarabjit Singh for defamation.

Tajeshwar Singh told rediff.com that the book had not defamed Tohra in any manner. "We have learnt from press reports that Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra feels that Operation Black Thunder has maligned him," he said. "Our reading of the book does not suggest this is the case or the author's intention."

Tajeshwar Singh said that if the jathedar did go ahead with his threat to sue, "we will face that development with equanimity since we are convinced that this is an honest and impartial book. It does not set out to malign anyone, but provides a first-hand account from the pen of one who was intimately involved in Operation Black Thunder and the events leading up to it."

Asked why the need for another book on Punjab was felt at this juncture, when the people of India have almost forgotten the militancy in the state in the 1980s and 1990s, Singh said it was an honest attempt to describe what went on behind the scenes.

"The book gives a balanced insider's account of important episodes of Operation Black Thunder, which are important to contemporary Indian history," he said.

"Maintaining a sober and impartial tone, Sarabjit Singh pulls no punches and is not afraid to tell it as it happened. Nor is he afraid to name names, whether of militants or politicians or bureaucrats or religious readers," he added.

Tajeshwar Singh insisted that the book was not a 'quickie' giving only a shallow account of events and said it was full of first-person narration of incidents Sarabjit Singh was intimately connected with.

EARLIER REPORT:
Tohra threatens to sue Badal, Sarabjit Singh

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