Main issue is probe into Operation Bluestar in Golden Temple and not just apology from Gandhi family

 

Was Prime Minister  Indira Gandhi alone responsible for Operation Bluestar?

Jagtar Singh

Ground Zero

The issue of categorical apology for army attack code named Operation Bluestar on Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib) in June 1984 and the genocidal attack on  the Sikhs in Delhi and several other places in India In November that year has come up again with Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi traversing Punjab.

All along, it is Indira Gandhi who has been held responsible for the avoidable Operation Bluestar by the Shiromani Akali Dal and other Sikh organisations.

There are two dimensions of that narrative which although inter-related, have different layers and logic.

The army was sent to Darbar Sahib complex at the time when a Sikh struggle, both peaceful and armed, was going on. The armed struggle was commanded by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The common issue between the two forms of struggles was implementation  of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution that essentially was articulation on federalism but in the context of the Sikhs. This was the agenda of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Sant Bhindranwale only ensured that the Akali leaders did not backtrack from this demand.

The political violence that had been triggered in Punjab was initially rooted in the revenge psyche and there were other groups too who subscribed to this line, mainly those who later formed the Babbar Khalsa.

The problem with the narrative that holds only the Gandhi family responsible for Operation Bluestar is that it leads to the conclusion of this unprecedented army attack being rooted in some personal enmity that she had with the Sikhs. The Akali Dal used to say that Operation Bluestar was her retaliation for the sustained agitation that the party had launched against Emergency imposed by her in June 1975 that ended in early 1977.

This approach absolves the logic of policy of the Indian state.

Operation Bluestar was part of strategy and tactics flowing from  the policy that continued for years. It is precisely the reason that an independent probe needs to be held even now in that operation.

The problem is that such a demand would not have been raised in Parliament by the Congress MPs from Punjab.

This was the role that the Akali Dal MPs in two Houses of Parliament should have taken up to demand such a probe. The Akali Dal has been part of the government at the Centre too for years.

It may be mentioned that the Akali Dal has been part of the BJP governments at the Centre and BJP is the party that had put pressure on Indira Gandhi to deploy army. The Amritsar district unit of the Communist Party of India too had made such a demand.

In this backdrop, demanding apology from Rahul Gandhi would amount to final cover up and the facts would never be revealed.

The problem is that even the exact number of civilians killed during Operation Bluestar is still not known.

This is just one aspect.

Then there is the other.

Operation Bluestar was avenged  with the assassination of Mrs Gandhi who was gunned down by her Sikh bodyguards.

However, the policy of the Government at the Centre did not change even after the Gandhi family was replaced at the helms of affairs of the country.

Punjab witnessed the highest killings in fake encounters from 1990 onwards. Cremations of unidentified bodies in just three cremation grounds in Amritsar district is part of the record.

Rather than just demanding apology from Rahul Gandhi for Operation Bluestar, Punjab should press for probe into that period.

The Shiromani Akali Dal should accept that that Operation Bluestar was avenged with gunning down of Mrs Gandhi.

The genocidal violence against the Sikhs unleashed as part of design in Delhi and other places in the aftermath of assassination of Mrs Gandhi is the other part.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had apologised in both Houses of Parliament.

Sonia Gandhi had expressed regret for these killings while addressing her party conference in Chandigarh.

Rahul Gandhi said yesterday, “I have tremendous love and affection for the people of Punjab and in particular the Sikh community. Reconciliation is a small word. I have love and affection for the people of this state and I have huge respect for the Sikh community for what they have done and what they are going to do in future. It is an emotional statement. I think India would not be India had it not been for the Sikh community; you play a central role here. In many ways, you are part of the back bone of the country and that is something that I value tremendously”. (Times of India, January 18, 2023).

The issue is that of getting justice for the victims of those genocidal killings.

There is another dimension to the dynamics of Sikh-Congress relations.

Punjab voted for the Congress by defeating the Akali Dal-BJP coalition both in 2002 and 2017 Assembly elections. It is evident that Operation Bluestar is no more an issue in elections in the state.

However, the narrative needs closure and for that, a high level independent probe is called for and that should be the main issue.

But then the Shiromani Akali Dal failed the people by backtracking from its promise of holding probe after forming the government in 1997. Rather the Akali Dal government patronised the very police officers who used to be identified with police excesses and fake encounters.

The demand for apology is virtual side-tracking from the main issues associated with Operation Bluestar.