Congress leader P Chidambaram on Sunday said that Operation Blue Star was the “wrong way” to “retrieve” the Golden Temple, adding that late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi “paid with her life for that”.
The former home minister made these remarks while moderating a discussion on “They Will Shoot You, Madam: My Life Through Conflict” by author Harinder Baweja at a literature fest in Himachal Pradesh. The statement was in response to the author’s comment that Indira Gandhi paid with her life for the decision.
He said, “No disrespect to any military officers here, but that (Blue Star) was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple.”
The 80-year-old Congress leader added, “A few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army.”
“Blue Star was the wrong way, and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake,” he further said.
He, however, said that one cannot solely blame Indira Gandhi for Operation Blue Star.
“But that mistake was a cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil service. You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi,” he said, before asking Baweja, “Would you?”
About Operation Blue Star
Operation Blue Star was the military operation ordered by Indira Gandhi to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and militants from the buildings of the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The Sikh community was upset with this decision, and there was outrage among the people.
Just months later, Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, in retaliation, on October 31, 1984, at her residence.