After having questioned it, Prime Minister should apologize for Operation Bluestar, order high level probe, declassify entire record

 

After having questioned it, Prime Minister should apologize for Operation Bluestar

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 10 gave a new spin to perhaps the most sensitive and horrendous action in free India- the army attacked on the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) complex in Amritsar in the first week of June, 1984 code-named Operation Bluestar.

This has been the only operation of its kind by the Indian Army on own people in which about 1200 men and women, most of them devotees, were killed. The government refuses to provide the number of casualties although one figure was released in the White Paper released later but that is questionable.

Prime Minister at that was Indira Gandhi.

Prime Minister Modi took critical view of this army action going against well-known position of his party (Bharatiya Janata Party) while replying to the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha.

He  questioned this action ordered by the Indira Gandhi government.

The first action that he questioned was air attack in Mizoram on March 5, 1967 by the Indian Air Force.

His logic was that this air action in Mizoram had emboldened Gandhi into sending army to Golden Temple  in “my own country (Mere Hi Desh Mein)”.

“Akal Takht Per Hamla Hua”, he said.

He said she went to the extent of attacking Akal Takht.

(Akal Takht is located in front of the Golden Temple and symbolizes state power.)

This is a very significant spin to narrative of Operation Bluestar that was ordered ostensibly to flush out Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed associates. Even tanks were deployed in this attack on Akal Takht where Sant Bhindranwale was staying and had fortified that historical structure.

As this action of far-reaching dimensions and consequences of the earlier government has been questioned by the Prime Minister himself, apoligising for the same would be the next logical step.

Prime Miniuster should not apologise for this action the Indira Gandhi government in the Lok Sabha as it has been questioned on the floor of the House.

Prime Minister Modi has not only questioned Operation Bluestar but has also reversed the narrative of the Bharatiya Janata Party on this issue.

Former party president and long-time patty ideologue L K Advani in his biography My Country My People has revealed as to how his party pressured Indira Gandhi to deploy army for this action.

In the chapter titled The Trauma and Triumph of Punjab, Advani stated, “One of the major mass agitations in the history of the BJP was…what we termed as the government’s virtual surrender before Bhindranwale and his private army, who had made the Golden Temple as their operational headquarters… Indira Gandhi’s wavering policy…. aggravated the problem in Punjab. With her credibility, both at home and abroad, at stake, the Prime Minister was ultimately forced to use the military to liberate the Golden Temple from its anti-national occupants”.

The BJP had carried banners in the procession taken out on the streets of Delhi in 1984 that stated: “Punjab Bachao, Fauj Bhijwao”.

The procession was led by L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

It is in this backdrop that the present Prime Minister, whose own party had demanded army action, has reversed the narrative of Operation Bluestar.

As it has been attacked as one of the major wrongs committed by Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister, entire record relating to the period from 1980 when the Congress returned to power upto Operation Bluestar must be declassified.

The governments, both at the centre and in Punjab, have stonewalled every effort to get information under RTI.

The logic of Modi’s remarks in Lok Sabha calls for follow up action.

Following three points are important in this context:

-Government of India must declassify entire record pertaining to Operation Bluestar.

-Government  of India should institute high level probe into entire narrative of  militancy from 1978 to 1995 including the killings, both by the state as well as the militants.

-Prime Minister should apologize for Operation Bluestar on behalf of the government as it was the action of the government, not that of just Indira Gandhi.

The issue here is not the politics behind this observation of Prime Minister Modi.

Dr. Manmohan Singh as the prime minister had apologized for mass killing of the Sikhs in Delhi and several other places following gunning down of Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984 by her two Sikh security personnel to avenge Operation Bluestar. That was state sponsored massacre of the Sikhs involving the Congress.

Now Prime Minister should apologize for Operation Bluestar after having questioned it.