Daijiworld Media Network - Kasauli

Kasauli, Oct 12: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram said that Operation Blue Star, carried out in 1984 to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was the “wrong way” to handle the situation, adding that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi “paid with her life for that mistake.”

Speaking at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival in Kasauli on Saturday, where he moderated a discussion on journalist Harinder Baweja’s book ‘They Will Shoot You, Madam’, the senior Congress leader noted that the decision to storm the shrine was not Gandhi’s alone.

“It was a cumulative decision of the army, police, intelligence, and civil service. We can’t blame it only on Ms Gandhi,” Chidambaram said. “No disrespect to any officers, but that was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. Three to four years later, we showed the right way — by keeping the army out,” he added.

Operation Blue Star, conducted between June 1 and June 8, 1984, was aimed at eliminating separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his followers holed up inside the Golden Temple complex. The military action led to extensive damage to the Akal Takht and triggered deep resentment within the Sikh community.

Indira Gandhi was assassinated a few months later by her Sikh bodyguards, which was followed by large-scale anti-Sikh riots that claimed over 3,000 lives across India.

The Congress party continues to face political attacks over its handling of the 1984 riots, particularly remarks made by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had said, “When a big tree falls, the ground shakes.”