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.
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