Some believe the Sikh Reference Library of the Golden Temple was deliberately burnt down, others say the material was taken away by the Indian army, others think that it has been returned to the SGPC already.
Giani Santokh Singh was initially a preacher but he also worked as personal assistant to the President of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and has shared his thoughts about this contentious issue.
There were two libraries in Darbar Sahib – Sri Guru Ram Das Library which is currently located in Hargobind Niwas and the Sikh Reference Library was set up in Ghanta Ghar.
The Sikh Reference Library had Sikh historical & reference material of the last five centuries, including the hand-written Birs. Many in the Sikh community believe the library was deliberately burnt down during the operation Blue Star in June 1984, while other say the Indian Army, following the military operation, took away the material, including invaluable Sikh literature.
During the recent months and years, there have been reports that some of the material taken away from the library had been returned.
Giani Santokh Singh, who lives in Australia, says SGPC should clear the air about the Sikh Reference Library.
"When I visited the library in January 1986, the then head manager told me that the library was burnt down deliberately. At that time no one ever thought that it was taken away by the Indian Army."
"Over time, the head of SGPC, Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra kept writing to Indian government to return the library material back to them.
"Then Congress MP Jagmeet Singh during his 31 minutes speech in Indian Parliament had urged the Indian government to return the contents of the library that were believed to have been stored in Meerut Cantonment."
In reply to that, the then defence minister George Fernandes had admitted that the library was taken away but said it was not with defence ministry. He said it was given to the human resources department.
"When I queried the scholar managing the Sikh library about the current status of the library, he told me that the contents of the library have been returned. I was shown some shelves where a few books and other material were stored. But when I went there again after a few years, the same person told me that only some part of the library had come back", said Giani Santokh Singh.
"Many including top ranks of SGPC believed that the library was burnt down. When I visited the library in Jan 1986 I also noticed some parts of the library damaged by the fire’.
Giani Santokh Singh doesn’t believe that there was no record kept of the items stored in the library by the management.
"I have personally tried to get some clues but there was no direct or concrete answer from anyone", laments Mr Singh.
"It is the responsibility of SGPC to come out with what exactly was in the library before operation Blue Star, what is stored currently in the library and what happened to the missing stuff," he said.
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