Jaibans Singh
The beginning of June brings, for the Sikh community, traumatic memories of Operation Blue Star, an attack on Sri Harmandir Sahib, the holiest Shrine of the Sikh community, by the Indian Army on orders of the then prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The operation carried on for seven terrible days from 1 June, to 7 June, 1984 and led to widespread destruction of the Gurdwara and Sri Akal Takht while also causing considerable loss of life including that of innocent civilians. The attack is looked upon by the Sikhs as a holocaust. Reconciliation continues to evade even after more than four decades.
The Congress party has, for long, remained haunted by the monumental tragedy and has attempted to shed the stigma through multiple means over the years. In a deft political manoeuvre the party has attempted to apportion a part on the blame on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The basis for this claim is a passage in the autobiography penned by senior BJP leader, Shri Lal Krishna Advani titled “My Country, My Life.” Congress leaders argue that, in the book, Advani has admitted support for Indira Gandhi’s attack on the holy shrine and therefore, the BJP cannot distance itself from the consequences of the operation.
The Congress has, over the years, taken great pains to further this narrative, especially in Punjab and continues to do so. The posture being adopted is that it has already apologised for the attack, and now the BJP should also apologise for its own position at that time.
In 2009, the then Congress spokesperson, Kapil Sibal, alleged that Advani had effectively admitted that the BJP agitation “forced Indira Gandhi to start Operation Blue Star.” Over the last few years, this argument has become an official and coordinated line of attack by the Punjab Congress, particularly after the BJP sought to politically expose the Congress legacy of Operation Blue Star and the Sikh Genocide of 1984.
In a joint press conference held at New Delhi addressed by former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Partap Singh Bajwa, in September 2024, the duo stated that the BJP, Advani and the RSS were “equally responsible” for Operation Blue Star. Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa also remains quite vocal on the issue during television debates and party interactions. Most of these remarks have appeared in Punjabi television debates and local political discussions
More recently, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring revived the same argument after P. Chidambaram described Operation Blue Star as a mistake, saying that the BJP had itself pushed for military intervention.
Perspective Presented by Advani
The paragraph in question forms part of a chapter, “The Trauma and Triumph of Punjab” covered from page 422 to page 438 of the autobiography of Shri LK Advani. While observing that his own family, being Sindhi, has traditionally been reading the holy Granth Sahib Advani, in the chapter, pays glowing tribute to the sacrifices made by Punjab before and after 1947.He goes on apportion blame of the upheaval and militancy in Punjab to lack of sensitivity and undemocratic posture towards Punjab adopted by successive Congress regimes from the times of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Indira Gandhi that was exploited by Pakistan to engineer a proxy war in the state. He says that the BJP strived to maintain the traditional amity between Hindus and Sikhs during this sensitive time and succeeded in doing so despite the killing of many of its cadre. He observes that the BJP even went into coalition with the Panthic party, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), as a junior partner to nurture Hindu-Sikh amity. This preamble is conveniently ignored by the Congress when it carries out a misinterpretation of his thoughts and words
Advani explains that the BJP, with a view of curtailing the appeasement by the Congress of certain militant elements for political benefits, launched a ten-day Satyagraha in the first week of May-2004. On 3 May, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee along with Chaudhary Charan Singh led a contingent of 15,000 protestors to court arrest. He notes that during this period he raised the issue in parliament and “charged the government with abdication of responsibility in the face of an unprecedented challenge to national unity and rule of law.”
Advani further notes that “Indira Gandhi’s wavering policy, lack of firm action, and the tendency to seek partisan political advantage 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.”
It becomes amply clear that the BJP, along with other parties in opposition, was performing its duty of bringing about a national awakening of the critical situation in Punjab. Nowhere in the course of the agitation did BJP or any other opposition party recommend or even suggest military action to resolve the issue. The Congress has played with the words by describing the BJP agitation as leaving the government with little option but to act militarily.
The BJP has not been open about its role in the events of 1984 – Charanjit Singh Channi
Misinterpretation of the BJP Posture
It is important to distinguish between what Advani actually wrote and the political interpretation placed upon it by Congress leaders. Advani, in fact, expresses regret in his book over the damage caused to the holy shrine. He acknowledges that the assault on one of Sikhism’s holiest places caused profound anguish among Sikhs worldwide. He characterizes the episode as a national tragedy and suggests that better political management could have prevented matters from reaching that point.
He is sharply critical of the Congress government’s political strategy in Punjab and contends that the Congress leadership initially encouraged or manipulated certain religious and political forces for short-term electoral gains, only to later confront the crisis through military means. In his narrative, this represented a grave failure of governance.
The claim that the BJP “compelled” or “forced” Indira Gandhi to order Operation Blue Star is a misinterpretation advanced by Congress leaders.
The Counter Argument
Several factors counter the argument that “Indira Gandhi was compelled by the BJP to launch Operation Blue Star.” Formed only in 1980, BJP was a relatively small, almost insignificant opposition party when the attack took place. It had neither the parliamentary strength nor the political leverage to force a Prime Minister as powerful as Indira Gandhi into a military operation of such magnitude.
Operation Blue Star was prepared under extraordinary secrecy. The historical record shows that opposition leaders were not privy to the government’s plans. Even senior Congress leaders were reportedly unaware of the precise timing and scale of the operation. It would, therefore, be implausible to suggest that the BJP was directing or compelling the government.
Indira Gandhi’s own speeches and statements before June 1984 consistently projected that the government would act according to its own assessment of national security and territorial integrity. She was not politically known for yielding to opposition pressure. If anything, her style of governance was highly centralised.
Opinion of Experts
Contemporary scholarship generally attributes the decision to attack Sri Harmandir Sahib to a combination of factors. Most historians and authors including Mark Tully, Satish Jacob, and Lt. General KS Brar, describe the operation as the culmination of escalating militancy, failed negotiations, intelligence assessments, and the Congress government’s own strategic calculations. The main trigger was occupation and fortification of the Golden Temple complex by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed militants that was leading to an unprecedented escalation of militancy across Punjab and a rapidly deteriorating law-and-order situation.
Another big reason was that Pakistan was steadily increasing its involvement in the state, in the military as well as the psychological domain. Intelligence reports suggested that Pakistan was poised to render help not only in provision of weapons and ammunition but also manpower smuggled across in the garb of freedom fighters.
The planning and execution of Operation Blue Star involved the Prime Minister’s Office, the Union Home Ministry, senior intelligence agencies, the Army leadership under General A.S. Vaidya.
None of the experts attribute the decision to pressure by the BJP or any other opposition party. The decision was taken by Indira Gandhi on the basis of intelligence reports and the advice of her own coterie.
Concluding Remarks
Operation Blue star was a misadventure that should not have happened. The Gandhi family that was responsible for the build-up and the ultimate assault has paid a heavy price. Sikhs have paid a heavier price in the form of the Sikh Genocide of 1984. The events have left a deep scar of the Sikh psyche that cannot be erased.
In an appropriate gesture the Congress party has apologised. However, the ongoing immoral attempts by the Congress to politicise the matter by apportioning blame on the BJP is in bad taste. It amounts to rubbing salt on the wounds of the Sikhs and Punjabis.