Canada Crisis: Forty years later, Operation Bluestar hits India’s geo-political relations

 

Canada Crisis: Forty years later, Operation Bluestar hits India’s geo-political relations

Ground Zero

Jagtar Singh

That India and Canada have expelled six diplomats each is now old story.

Coinciding with this deepening crisis between the two countries is the media report that India has conveyed to USA that that ‘CC1’, code for Indian official who allegedly figured in the plan to assassinate US-based Sikh separatist activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has been arrested.

The issue in general in both the cases is the same but the approach is diametrically opposite.  What is common in both the cases is the allegation of hand of Indian agencies in a murder in Canada and plan to murder on the soil of USA.

What is again common in both the cases is the Sikh narrative relating to activities of the Sikh separatists demanding sovereign state of Khalistan in the land of Punjab that is part of India. These separatists operate from the lands of Canada, USA, UK and several other counties.

Canada is the second home for the Sikhs and has become fertile ground for Sikh separatists whose modus operandi happen to be democratic. This section is also active in UK Germany, Australia and even Italy, besides the USA.

One has to go into historical perspective of this crisis. Demand for Khalistan is the fall-out of Operation Bluestar, the unprecedented army invasion of the Golden Temple (Darbar Sahib), the most sacred space of the Sikhs in Amritsar, in the summer of first week of June, 1984, ostensibly to flush out armed activists led by 1947 born young Sikh preacher turned religio-political activist Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and the Babbar Khalsa. Sant Bhindranwale headed the Damdami Taksal, the Sikh seminary, about 20 kms from Amritsar at Mehta Chowk.

This was the operation in which hundreds of innocent devotees-including old men, women and children- were killed. The total number of killings according to rough estimates is about 1200 but the  government has refused to share the exact information as the number given in the white paper released by the Government of India in July 1984 list much less casualties. Rather this operation of only kind in independent India continues to be shrouded in secrecy as the Government of India declines information under RTI Act.

The Sikh militancy that got triggered as revenge psyche to avenge the killing of 13 Sikhs in Sikh-Nirankari clash in Amritsar on April 13, 1978 later took the shape of armed struggle for autonomous Punjab based upon Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which, otherwise, was the demand of the Shiromani Akali Dal that function in democratic domain.

Sant Bhindranwale never raised the demand for Khalistan unequivocally and was willing for settlement with the government till the last. The other group that too decided to avenge these killings was associated with the puritan Akhand Kirtani Jatha that later adopted the name of Babbar Khalsa.

The Phase II of militancy that started after the killing of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984  to avenge Operation Bluestar and the consequent genocidal killing of the Sikhs for three days in Delhi and several other places patronized by the state. This second phase turned into armed struggle for Khalistan. Ironically, Operation Bluestar had been ordered to end Sikh militancy.

Many of the Sikh activists associated with the armed struggle escaped abroad and finally settled mainly in Canada. There were many more who managed to procure certificates of being victims of human rights violations by the India security agencies and got political asylum abroad. These sections are now active in these countries.

It is for this reason that what is happening in Canada and USA is rooted in Operation Bluestar and the subsequent combing operation code-named Operation Woodrose in the border districts. Many of the Sikh youth then escaped to neighbouring Pakistan.

In Punjab- the epicentre of this Sikh narrative- the organizations that continue to advocate this cause include the once Dal Khalsa and Akali Dal (Amritsar) and these people active in democratic domain resorting to parliamentary methods. Sikh activist Amritpal Singh, who won the recent Lok Sabha election from Khadoor Sahib with the highest margin in Punjab and is under detention in far off Dibrugarh jail in Assam in East India, too had raised the demand for Khalistan before his arrest.

The violence associated with the Sikh struggle, including by the Sikh activists and the security forces, is estimated to have claimed about 40,000 lives from 1980 to 1995 including about 8000 killings in fake encounters. It may be mentioned that the case of about 2000 cremations of unidentified bodies in just three cremation grounds of Amritsar based upon probe by Punjab Human Rights Organization of which Jaswant Singh Khalra was the general secretary has been upheld by judiciary and awarded compensation. However, no action has ever been recommended against the guilty who killed them.

Steps were never initiated to start the closure of this narrative. This should have been done by first releasing the record leading to Operation Bluestar. After all, its futility is now before every body.

It is a long political process that should involve not only the victims of violence but also political and social activists.

The wounds should not be allowed to fester for decades.

The roots of what is happening in Canada and USA are thus in Punjab.

Killing of Sikh activists in these countries has only worsened the situation. USA came into the picture after Canada with reported plan to kill Pannun.

Intriguingly, India’s approach in dealing with the USA is different from that of confronting Canada.

A Washington Post report has referred to India’s Home Minister Amit Shah too in its report.

What is all the more shocking is that name of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi has cropped up in the briefing by Canada. Bishnoi, who is darling of India’s Right on social media, is presently lodged in a Gujarat jail. Interestingly, he was interviewed twice by a media channel while under detention at different places.

How can a person operate with impunity from jail? Canada has alleged he is just a tool.

India’s security agencies continue to perceive Khalistan narrative as a threat even within country and this despite the fact that the armed struggle was “crushed” by the end of 1995.

Canada Sikh narrative is fall out of Operation Bluestar and what is important is that it has hit India’s geo-political relations after 40 years.

The festering wounds needs be healed.