Who was responsible for this bloody battle Hindus, Sikhs, Politics, Fundamentalism or as the Government said, some foreign hand - Pakistan, China? Everyone you ask has his/her own reasons for biasing, you never know whom to believe or whom to not; who is lying or who is saying truth
According to govt.’s version the casualties in Operation Blue Star were - 83 troops, 493 Civilians/Terrorist; where in actual the figure goes well beyond 2000 which majorly include innocent civilians. I wonder why always such a blunder exists in government records. So, who is responsible for all the killings? The only way to know the truth is to read about those times as much as one can and then use his/her common sense to drive some conclusion. I may be wrong, I may be right but I tried to read and think as rational as I could, without any biasing:
Congress Party (Indira Gandhi/ Sanjay Gandhi/ Giani Zail Singh) - It is very enticing simply to blame Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his brand of Sikh fundamentalism, which may seem to be very harsh judgment, because fundamentalism does not exist in vacuum. Indira Gandhi was responsible for creating a political atmosphere which made the fundamentalism of Bhindranwale relevant.
June 1 to 6, 1984. The Indian army invaded Harimandir Sahib Complex on the orders of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. But the catastrophe had its origin well before that in the Punjab’s political environment. After the defeat of Congress party in 1977 elections in Punjab, Giani Zail Singh then president of India and a trustworthy close friend of the Prime Minister, along with Sanjay Gandhi (Elder son of the Prime Minister) was given the responsibility to uplift congress party in Punjab.
In contrast to the general belief that Bhindranwale is an Akali Dal man, he was all from the Congress party. It was Indira Gandhi’s Congress party which launched Bhindranwale to counter Akali Dal trinity. Bhindranwale even supported and campaigned for the congress candidates in 1980 general elections in Amritsar constituency. It was Indira Gandhi’s government which allowed him to usurp its role in Punjab in-spite of all the terrorism and killings he was involved in. Bhindranwale had got the full support of the central government and the home ministry. “Indira Gandhi created a monster she could not control”
It is believed that, burning of Bhindranwale’s sermons by the police while they attempted to arrest him in Chando Kalan (Haryana) turned him against his political godfather, Zail Singh and Indira Gandhi. But Giani Zail Singh continued thinking that he can use him for their political instincts against Akali Dal and his congress alley Darbara Singh (Then chief minister of Punjab and a rival of Giani Zail Singh). So up till the end he was in full support of Bhindranwale, he was in direct contact with Bhindranwale till his last day.
Even if Indira Gandhi had arrested Bhindranwale after assassination of Jagat Narain or DIG of Police Mr. Atwal or many other high profile citizens whose killings are instigated by Bhindranwale’s men there would have been no assault on the Akal Takht. Even if Indira Gandhi had acted when she first got reports that Bhindranwale was fortifying the Golden Temple complex, it would still not have been too late. But she didn’t as she wanted to use him for her petty political gains against the Akali Dal or as some people say against the Sikh psyche. Indira Gandhi’s wrong political tactics & indecisiveness is the main reason for all the blood shed. She acted too late and too much.
A situation which could have been resolved without a shot being fired was allowed to deteriorate to the point where the sanctity of a place of worship was dishonored in the most brutal way with death and destruction.
Akali Dal - The Akali Dal trinity must also bear their share of the responsibility. Sikh leadership was as much responsible as the government for the disaster. It was the Akali Dal leaders surrender to Bhindranwale which dragged the situation off-limit. Badal and Longowal lacked the courage to stand out against a force they knew was evil and Tohra tried to use it for his own ambitions of being the chief minister of the state. Sikhs and their leaders should have been the firsts to through Bhindranwale out when he occupied the highest seat of Sikh authority ‘The Akal Takht’, but they didn’t.
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala – Indian govt. was responsible for the disaster and was responsible to let the situation come to that criticality that they had to involve army in the battle against their own people. But the culprit behind the army invasion into the Harimandir Sahib and the destruction of the holly Akal Takht is Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala.
Will talk about his fundamentalism little later, first question is why at all he moved into the Akal Takht, he was the only person other than Guru Hargobind Singh, and his family, to reside in the Akal Takht. If he really was genuine enough then he should have stayed out of Harimandir Sahib and should have dealt with the government and army from outside only. But in actual he was a coward, and feared from the Government and the Police, that’s why twice he hide himself in Gurdwaras to save himself from the arrest and at-last take the sanctuary of Akal Takht, when he find no else place safe to be alive. Then he fortified the historic Takhat, with rifles, assault weapons & grenades which is never good for any religious place. He had been criticized for this act at that time as well, but the politicos and the persons (majorly Congressmen) who wanted to raise the conflict were in his favor and even backed him in his decision.
Bank robberies, money extortion and murders not only of the Hindus as the paid media elevated but also of the Sikhs who genuinely opposed him. He was not serving any religion but himself; he was not killing the enemies of Sikhism but his personal enemies. By 1983 more than 500 people had been murdered throughout the Punjab by armed brigades of young motor cycle driving terrorists. It’s not that, the government didn’t know about Bhindranwale’s movements but they deliberately didn’t try to stop him and what happened because of that is all history.
Indian Army – Using army against a person who fortified a holly place is not at all wrong but it was particularly unwise of the Indian army to surround Guru Arjun Dev’s Golden Temple on the anniversary of his martyrdom. The Golden Temple and the surrounding guest houses were filled with 3000 or more pilgrims, guests and employees of the complex. Many had come to visit the Temple on the Martyrdom day of Guru Arjun Dev.
At first this Operation was not at all needed as until June 1 1984, Bhindranwale held his regular public meetings on the roof of the Langar hall. The meetings were open to all, and it should have been possible for a group of commandos to nab him there by using minimal force. This was not done. It should also have been easy for specially trained sharp-shooters, who had positioned themselves on the buildings around the temple, to target Bhindranwale and his armed followers, and to "neutralize" them. On June 1 afternoon, mixed groups of various security agencies that had occupied the multi-storied buildings in the circumference did open fire against the temple complex when Bhindranwale was holding his audience on the roof of the Langar hall. Instead of targeting Bhindranwale, the shooters aimed at various buildings, including the main shrine of Harimandir Sahib which received 34 bullet marks.
If we consider that the operation was necessary and there was no way-out then also, Indian and foreign military experts believe that the plan as well as the intelligence was at fault. The Army commanders had thought that the size and might of the forces employed to route the Takht's occupiers would convince the Singhs to surrender, but they forget the long tradition of the Sikhs to fight and get martyrdom. There was a total lack of intelligence, that too when the military knew that the commander of the Bhindranwale army is their own army man Major Shahbeg Singh. They could have get the proper layout and gun placements of the Bhindranwale before the operation if they wanted too, but don’t know why, but it seems that all the operation was done in a hurry and without any planning.
The least creditable part of the operation blue star is to evacuate hostel complex in the middle of the operation and because of that hundreds of innocent people died and almost all by army firing, Which Major Brar (Operation Commander) denied in all his interviews but the eyewitness accounts tells a different story of mishandling of innocent people even women and children by the army personnel.
Major Brar said that enormous calls were made to ask the innocent people to come out but every eyewitness had denied these claims. Major even told the press that only one tank had been driven on to the parikrama, and that it had only fired its secondary armament, a 7.62mm machine gun, but the real story is far different and Bhindranwale was blasted out of the Takht with 105mm main armament of Indian Vijayanta tanks and the damage to Akal Takht tells it all. To make matter worse, Indian army simultaneously attacked 74 other Gurdwaras all over Punjab which can be handled without fire power but the army didn’t try that. 257 persons were shot down during the storming of the Dukhniwaran Gurdwara in my home town Patiala.
Other then above mentioned, there are many more people who were also to be blamed for the blood shed; then Chief Minister of Punjab Darbara Singh, Chief Minister of Haryana Bhajan Lal and many courtiers of Indira Gandhi’s Darbar tried their best to fuel the fire.
And the attack on Golden temple only alleviated the secessionist movement and overnight Bhindranwale became a folk hero. It is a known fact that more people died after this attack in next two years then from 1977-1984 while the attack on golden temple was to curb the "secessionist movement". It was obvious that sooner or later Indira Gandhi will have to suffer for this destruction. In November of same year, two Sikhs of Delhi police killed her at her residence. Then riots against Sikhs followed in Delhi, Kanpur, and other cities in all over India in which more then 15,000 Sikhs were murdered in broad daylight by the supporters of Indira Gandhi while police meekly watched.
But that’s for sure; Operation Blue Star was not a battle against the Sikhs, it was a battle in which infantry and artillery were used against a small group of Sikhs who had fortified the golden temple complex. The tragedy is that many Sikhs do not accept this.
And it’s even surer, that holocaust of innocent Sikhs in Delhi after Mrs. Gandhi’s assassination was deliberately planned and the government machinery and police was actively involved in it. The tragedy is that the so called democratic government does not accept this bitter truth and the justice is still pending.
References:
Amritsar – Indira Gandhi’s last battle (Mark Tully & Satish Jacobs)
Operation Blue Star (K S Brar)
A History of the Sikhs (Khushwant Singh)
India the siege with-in (MJ AKBAR)
Bhindranwale- myth and reality (Chand Joshi)
Plenty of eyewitness accounts on Wikipedia, Sikhiwiki and YouTube.
