33 yrs ago, a reluctant Indira had no choice but to order Bluestar

Thirty-three years have passed since Operation Bluestar took place in early June 1984. As this is late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s birth centenary year, it may be appropriate to recapitulate the events that led to this controversial action which also ultimately led to her tragic assassination.

Indira Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1966 and, within a year, divided Punjab to satisfy the demands of Sikhs for a Punjabi Suba. After Independence, the Sikhs had been demanding a separate state to protect their religious identity and sought a share in power in independent India denied to them during Partition. While Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, throughout his 17 years as Prime Minister, stoutly resisted this demand, Indira thought it prudent to yield to the pressure as she was yet to achieve the popularity and political stature of her father.

However, it was only in 1980, after she returned to power after the collapse of the Janata Party, that she had to confront the problems arising out of the new situation in Punjab. Deprived of power after the 1980 elections, the Akali leaders stepped up demands, which they didn’t raise when the Janata Party was in power at the Centre and they had their patronage in the state. After the creation of Punjab in 1966, certain issues concerning land distribution, access to rivers and Chandigarh, the capital that Punjab shares with Haryana, all remained unsolved and a source of Sikh grievances. In 1973, the Akali Dal passed the famous Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which demanded not only the sole possession of Chandigarh, but also control over river waters essential for autonomy for the state. The early 1980s also saw the sudden growth of a Sikh militant leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who initially spoke of only the Anandpur resolution but soon began propagating for an independent Sikh state. The battle cry for “Khalistan” received support both overt and convert, from sections of the Sikh community in Britain, the United States, Canada and Germany.

On September 9, 1981, Lala Jagat Narain, the owner of a Punjabi chain of newspapers, whose editorials had condemned Bhindranwale, was shot dead. There was no doubt that his killing was masterminded by Bhindranwale, who was arrested within a few days of the murder. But unfortunately, succumbing to widespread public pressure in Punjab, then Union home minister Giani Zail Singh prevailed upon Punjab CM Darbara Singh to release him. After that Bhindranwale made triumphal tours of Delhi and Mumbai (then Bombay) and returned to Punjab as a big hero. He lost no time in intensifying his disruptive and terrorist activities. Violence in the state escalated. Hindus and Sikhs critical of Bhindranwale were murdered. Exactly a year after Lala Jagat Narain’s murder, his son, who had taken over his media legacy, was also killed, and so was a nominated member of Parliament, V.N. Tiwari, a few months earlier. On April 25, 1983, Punjab police DIG A.S. Atwal was shot dead as he was coming out of the Golden Temple after offering his prayers.

As the situation deteriorated, Bhindranwale moved into the Golden Temple complex with his militant followers. From the Akal Takht, the second holiest part of the Golden Temple, Bhindranwale ran his secessionist network. His terrorist squads then fanned out, desecrated temples, murdered, looted and set fire to villages. Highly sophisticated arms and ammunition hidden under cartons of milk and foodgrain were smuggled into the Golden Temple, which in a matter of months became a fortress manned by militants committed to die for the cause of “Khalistan”. On October 5, 1983, Hindu passengers were taken out of buses and shot dead. This provoked outrage throughout India. The next day Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dismissed the chief minister and placed the state under President’s Rule. Negotiations went on between the Centre and the factions-ridden Akal Dal led by Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, but nothing came out of the talks. Sant Longowal, a moderate, was totally overshadowed by the larger-than-life presence of Bhindranwale, also hardened his stand for public consumption. He declared that from June 3 (1984), the date of the martyrdom of fifth Guru Arjun Dev, grains would cease to flow out from Punjab. By this time, Bhindranwale had further fortified the Golden Temple complex under the supervision of a retired Army officer, Maj. Gen. Shabeg Singh, who had trained the Mukti Bahini during the 1971 Bangladesh war. The defences were prepared in such a manner that in the event of the Indian Army entering the temple, which was anticipated, the militants could hold out long enough to provoke a general uprising amongst Sikhs and declare formation of “Khalistan”.

Indira Gandhi was well aware of the consequences of sending the Army to evict Bhindranwale and his deeply-entrenched militants from the Golden Temple. By the end of May she also knew that time was not on her side. Any further delay would have only resulted in disastrous consequences for the unity and integrity of the country. With great reluctance, she agreed to the plan for swift Army action, prepared primarily by two lieutenant-generals, K. Sundarji, the Western Army commander, and Ranjit Singh Dayal, the corps commander. Maj. Gen. R.S. Brar, a divisional commander, was given the task of executing Operation Bluestar.

On the night of June 2, the Prime Minister addressed the nation on All India Radio: “Innocent people, Sikhs and Hindus, have been killed. There is arson, looting and sabotage. Holy shrines have been turned into shelters for criminals and murderers. A systematic campaign is spreading bitterness and hatred between Hindus and Sikhs. And worst of all, the unity and integrity of our motherland is being openly challenged by a few who find refuge in holy shrines…” In his biography of Indira Gandhi, Inder Malhotra had written: “When Indira authorised Operation Bluestar, she knew that she had also signed her own death warrant.”

Maj. Gen. Brar brilliantly led the operation and managed to kill all the militants, including Bhindranwale and Shabeg Singh, within 48 hours. But the cost was extremely high. The official estimate of the death toll were four officers, 79 soldiers and 492 terrorists. Other accounts placed the numbers much higher, but Indira Gandhi had saved the country from disintegration even though, as she herself had foreseen, it would cost the nation her own life.

Though criticised years later, the Army operation then was hailed by people throughout the country, including the media and the intelligentsia. It was best summed up by veteran journalist Nikhil Chakravarty: “The Akali leadership had surrendered to extremists in its camp who were openly clamouring for secession; the sanctum sanctorum of the Sikh community, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, was virtually handed over to the fanatic gang amassing arms with impunity and indulging in terrorism all over Punjab and beyond. No political option was left before the government to deal with this menace, which had no precedent. It was a testimony to Indira Gandhi’s courage and commitment to the unity and integrity of the nation that she ordered the launching of Operation Bluestar, by which the Army smoked out the terrorists from the sacred precincts of the Golden Temple.” Inder Malhotra, another veteran journalist and Indira Gandhi’s biographer, blamed “the rivalries, clashing ambitions and collective cowardice of the Akali leadership for allowing Bhindranwale and his murder gangs to prevail”.

The writer, an ex-Army officer and a former member of the National Commission for Minorities, is a political analyst