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Operation Blue Star — the untold story

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Almost three decades after Operation Blue Star — the army operation that cleared the Golden temple complex in Amritsar of Sikh militants in 1984 — a journalist has spoken to some of the surviving dramatis personae of the event to recreate almost hour by hour what happened during those fateful six days. The documentary Operation Blue Star — the untold story currently being aired by Chandigarh-based television station Day and Night News run by veteran Punjab journalist Kanwar Sandhu has uncovered startling new evidence about the operation and the conduct of the militants and the security agencies since then.

Perhaps the most significant disclosures are by Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, a former Union Minister for Social Welfare, then with the Shiromani Akali Dal, who was present in the Guru Ram Das Sarai along with then Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal and SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

He relates how at around 6 p.m. on 5th June, Mr. Longowal and Mr. Tohra were coerced almost at gunpoint to declare the formation of Khalistan and how they wriggled out of it.

“Five Sikh youth with self-loading rifles (SLRs) and a metallic box that was possibly a transmitter came to us and placed their SLRs with their barrels pointing towards all of us. They told us that the ‘box’ is connected with Gen Zia-Ul-Haq in Pakistan. They told Jathedar Tohra and Sant Longowal to declare the formation of Khalistan, so that the Pakistani Army can launch an attack. Both Tohra and Longowal are not alive today, so I am saying this under a solemn oath of allegiance to the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, because I want to speak the truth. Sant Longowal kept completely quiet. Then Jathedar Tohra said, ‘Dekho naujawano, eh jedi jang hai eh Hind-Punjab di jang hai. This is a battle between Sant Bhinderanwale and Mrs. Indira Gandhi and that since the former is leading the battle, it will be fair to ask him to issue the statement about the creation of Khalistan.’ He did not say that he will make the announcement for Khalistan. I don’t know how history will judge the Akali leadership but this is the truth. The youth then left the place and never came back.”

‘OUTRAGE BY ARMY’

Mr. Ramoowalia also sheds light on an alleged execution of some 30 Sikh youth by the army — the certainty of which has always been speculated. Talking about events in the wee hours of 6th June, when the army was combing through the complex, the narrative states that a Major of the 9 Kumaon regiment lined up some 20 Sikh youth and mowed them down with a machine gun. Recalling the incident, Mr. Ramoowalia says, “The captured Sikhs appeared to be from Kashmir and didn't look like Punjabi Sikhs. An officer waved a handkerchief and they were shot dead by the Army men with bullets which were sprayed on them from left to right and then right to left. I have never seen people being killed like that, with bullets. I have been a farmer and I have cut the crop and made its bundles. The crests of these Sikh youth collapsed similarly. No one moaned or uttered anything. I know my statement will be called into questioning, but 28 years after it happened, I am going on record on this.”

“The Army men were very angry, very abusive, mad with rage. Maybe they had lost their fellow Army men in the battle elsewhere in the Complex. This happened between 3 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., after the grenade blast nearby and after that it was my turn next as a part of the next group of Sikhs which was being queued up for killing. I was also told to sit down cross-legged and said my prayers. By chance, I remembered that I had in my pocket my identity card as an ex-Member of Parliament, of Lok Sabha. I flashed it and raised my hand and said, I am Ramoowalia, a former Member, Lok Sabha. I and all these persons, who are under your custody, belong to Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. We are non-violent people, [have] nothing to do with the armed struggle, we are here, just as a part of Akali Dal’s peaceful morcha.’ He asked me, ‘what is your name?’ I said, ‘my name is Ramoowalia.’ He asked me once again. I told him, ‘I am not misguiding. Not misleading. This is my identity card. Please check it up.’ God knows, the Army man was so angry, he could have just shot and killed me. But he said, ‘stop’. The other Army men lowered their guns. And two to three of them came up to me… and pushed me to a side. Then the officer again asked me, ‘Are you really Ramoowalia?’ I said, ‘I am really Ramoowalia.’ He said, ‘how are you here? You are not supposed to be here.’ I said, ‘why’? He said, ‘you are supposed to be with Sant Longowal.’ I said, ‘Sant Longowal is sitting in the adjoining room. I have come out’.”

Brigadier (retd.) Onkar Singh Goraya, who was then Col Admn in HQ 15 Corps corroborates the incident saying that Bhan Singh the then SGPC secretary also told him something similar. “He said the Army men in Darbar Sahib have done something awful. He said that some Sikh youth were lined up against a wall in the Golden Temple Complex and killed with a machine gun. He also showed me the wall in the Complex which had the bullet marks, when I went back for the second time in the afternoon,” he is quoted as saying in the documentary.

Mr. Sandhu has pieced together the account with the help of interviews with some 100 eyewitnesses and officials, records from army archives, interrogation reports of captured militants and also the actual Op Instructions issued by Maj Gen Brar on the eve of the operation. Says he, “This is an honest attempt to put the events in perspective and tell the story as it happened. If in the process it upsets any one, it cannot be helped.” Already the television station is getting hate mail from the Sikh diaspora in particular which is angry with its portrayal of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a militant who fortified the golden temple complex with arms and ammunition.

MILITANTS STOCKPILED WEAPONS

In 2010 the BBC had done a one-hour documentary “1984- A Sikh story”, which was never shown in India. Speaking to The Hindu, Mandeep Bajwa a consultant for the BBC documentary said, “This is the most authentic and credible account yet and I can see that the passage of time has emboldened many eyewitnesses to speak the truth. It exposes many fallacies like the one about arms and ammunition being planted in the temple complex by the Army. Mr. Sandhu has not only provided a rough inventory of the military hardware stockpiled inside but also detailed some instances of how they were smuggled in.”

Another revelation is that Maj Gen Shahbeg Singh (retd.), the disgraced army man who joined Bhindranwale’s group and organized the defences died on the evening of 5th June, before the actual battle began. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet and quoting Balwinder Singh Khojkipur a close associate of Bhindranwale who survived the operation, the documentary states that he was taken to the basement of Akal Takht where he died with his head on Bhindranwale’s lap. His covered body lay in a room there for a whole day until the armymen entered and cleared it the next day.

As for Bhindranwale himself —the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal that he headed refused to accept his death for many years — he died at 8.45 am on 6th June after being shot at from an armoured vehicle as he was moving towards the ‘Darshni Deodi’ to offer his prayers to Guru Ram Das. His body, contrary to reports of that time, was not identified by his brother Harcharan Singh Rode then serving as the subedar major in 61 Engineers Regiment in Jalandhar, but by the police and army doctors. Says Rode, “This is totally wrong. I did not issue any contradiction because I had got to see him and paid my last respects.”

Much has been written and said about the pilgrims trapped inside the complex many of who died in the crossfire. This series documents that they were actually discouraged from responding to the announcements being made by the district administration outside asking the pilgrims to come out. Apparently when five or six of them tried to come out with their hands in the air, they were shot down by militants from inside the temple complex. Their bodies lay near the ghanta ghar —where pilgrims wash their feet — on the morning of 5th June.

Operation Blue Star
 
Operation blue star is among the most successful counter terrorist operations throughout history.

WTF.. children and women were raped, while there fathers and husbands were being shot in cold blood, and you call it anti terrorism operation?

How can you kill men in temple without warning and call it anti terrorism, while in Pakistan, you declare the people terrorists for carrying out operation in red mosque, after through warnings and opportunity to lay arms.
 

Almost three decades after Operation Blue Star — the army operation that cleared the Golden temple complex in Amritsar of Sikh militants in 1984 — a journalist has spoken to some of the surviving dramatis personae of the event to recreate almost hour by hour what happened during those fateful six days. The documentary Operation Blue Star — the untold story currently being aired by Chandigarh-based television station Day and Night News run by veteran Punjab journalist Kanwar Sandhu has uncovered startling new evidence about the operation and the conduct of the militants and the security agencies since then.

Perhaps the most significant disclosures are by Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, a former Union Minister for Social Welfare, then with the Shiromani Akali Dal, who was present in the Guru Ram Das Sarai along with then Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal and SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

He relates how at around 6 p.m. on 5th June, Mr. Longowal and Mr. Tohra were coerced almost at gunpoint to declare the formation of Khalistan and how they wriggled out of it.

“Five Sikh youth with self-loading rifles (SLRs) and a metallic box that was possibly a transmitter came to us and placed their SLRs with their barrels pointing towards all of us. They told us that the ‘box’ is connected with Gen Zia-Ul-Haq in Pakistan. They told Jathedar Tohra and Sant Longowal to declare the formation of Khalistan, so that the Pakistani Army can launch an attack. Both Tohra and Longowal are not alive today, so I am saying this under a solemn oath of allegiance to the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, because I want to speak the truth. Sant Longowal kept completely quiet. Then Jathedar Tohra said, ‘Dekho naujawano, eh jedi jang hai eh Hind-Punjab di jang hai. This is a battle between Sant Bhinderanwale and Mrs. Indira Gandhi and that since the former is leading the battle, it will be fair to ask him to issue the statement about the creation of Khalistan.’ He did not say that he will make the announcement for Khalistan. I don’t know how history will judge the Akali leadership but this is the truth. The youth then left the place and never came back.”

‘OUTRAGE BY ARMY’

Mr. Ramoowalia also sheds light on an alleged execution of some 30 Sikh youth by the army — the certainty of which has always been speculated. Talking about events in the wee hours of 6th June, when the army was combing through the complex, the narrative states that a Major of the 9 Kumaon regiment lined up some 20 Sikh youth and mowed them down with a machine gun. Recalling the incident, Mr. Ramoowalia says, “The captured Sikhs appeared to be from Kashmir and didn't look like Punjabi Sikhs. An officer waved a handkerchief and they were shot dead by the Army men with bullets which were sprayed on them from left to right and then right to left. I have never seen people being killed like that, with bullets. I have been a farmer and I have cut the crop and made its bundles. The crests of these Sikh youth collapsed similarly. No one moaned or uttered anything. I know my statement will be called into questioning, but 28 years after it happened, I am going on record on this.”

“The Army men were very angry, very abusive, mad with rage. Maybe they had lost their fellow Army men in the battle elsewhere in the Complex. This happened between 3 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., after the grenade blast nearby and after that it was my turn next as a part of the next group of Sikhs which was being queued up for killing. I was also told to sit down cross-legged and said my prayers. By chance, I remembered that I had in my pocket my identity card as an ex-Member of Parliament, of Lok Sabha. I flashed it and raised my hand and said, I am Ramoowalia, a former Member, Lok Sabha. I and all these persons, who are under your custody, belong to Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. We are non-violent people, [have] nothing to do with the armed struggle, we are here, just as a part of Akali Dal’s peaceful morcha.’ He asked me, ‘what is your name?’ I said, ‘my name is Ramoowalia.’ He asked me once again. I told him, ‘I am not misguiding. Not misleading. This is my identity card. Please check it up.’ God knows, the Army man was so angry, he could have just shot and killed me. But he said, ‘stop’. The other Army men lowered their guns. And two to three of them came up to me… and pushed me to a side. Then the officer again asked me, ‘Are you really Ramoowalia?’ I said, ‘I am really Ramoowalia.’ He said, ‘how are you here? You are not supposed to be here.’ I said, ‘why’? He said, ‘you are supposed to be with Sant Longowal.’ I said, ‘Sant Longowal is sitting in the adjoining room. I have come out’.”

Brigadier (retd.) Onkar Singh Goraya, who was then Col Admn in HQ 15 Corps corroborates the incident saying that Bhan Singh the then SGPC secretary also told him something similar. “He said the Army men in Darbar Sahib have done something awful. He said that some Sikh youth were lined up against a wall in the Golden Temple Complex and killed with a machine gun. He also showed me the wall in the Complex which had the bullet marks, when I went back for the second time in the afternoon,” he is quoted as saying in the documentary.

Mr. Sandhu has pieced together the account with the help of interviews with some 100 eyewitnesses and officials, records from army archives, interrogation reports of captured militants and also the actual Op Instructions issued by Maj Gen Brar on the eve of the operation. Says he, “This is an honest attempt to put the events in perspective and tell the story as it happened. If in the process it upsets any one, it cannot be helped.” Already the television station is getting hate mail from the Sikh diaspora in particular which is angry with its portrayal of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a militant who fortified the golden temple complex with arms and ammunition.

MILITANTS STOCKPILED WEAPONS

In 2010 the BBC had done a one-hour documentary “1984- A Sikh story”, which was never shown in India. Speaking to The Hindu, Mandeep Bajwa a consultant for the BBC documentary said, “This is the most authentic and credible account yet and I can see that the passage of time has emboldened many eyewitnesses to speak the truth. It exposes many fallacies like the one about arms and ammunition being planted in the temple complex by the Army. Mr. Sandhu has not only provided a rough inventory of the military hardware stockpiled inside but also detailed some instances of how they were smuggled in.”

Another revelation is that Maj Gen Shahbeg Singh (retd.), the disgraced army man who joined Bhindranwale’s group and organized the defences died on the evening of 5th June, before the actual battle began. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet and quoting Balwinder Singh Khojkipur a close associate of Bhindranwale who survived the operation, the documentary states that he was taken to the basement of Akal Takht where he died with his head on Bhindranwale’s lap. His covered body lay in a room there for a whole day until the armymen entered and cleared it the next day.

As for Bhindranwale himself —the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal that he headed refused to accept his death for many years — he died at 8.45 am on 6th June after being shot at from an armoured vehicle as he was moving towards the ‘Darshni Deodi’ to offer his prayers to Guru Ram Das. His body, contrary to reports of that time, was not identified by his brother Harcharan Singh Rode then serving as the subedar major in 61 Engineers Regiment in Jalandhar, but by the police and army doctors. Says Rode, “This is totally wrong. I did not issue any contradiction because I had got to see him and paid my last respects.”

Much has been written and said about the pilgrims trapped inside the complex many of who died in the crossfire. This series documents that they were actually discouraged from responding to the announcements being made by the district administration outside asking the pilgrims to come out. Apparently when five or six of them tried to come out with their hands in the air, they were shot down by militants from inside the temple complex. Their bodies lay near the ghanta ghar —where pilgrims wash their feet — on the morning of 5th June.

Operation Blue Star

What a fantasy.. minus all the truth!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@BATMAN


Don't feed too much into the sikh propagenda. Indian army did what was needed to, restore the rule of the state.

yes they did but it could have been done in a better way...RIP the innocents who died in cross fire and RIP the soldiers who laid their lives.

WTF.. children and women were raped, while there fathers and husbands were being shot in cold blood, and you call it anti terrorism operation?

How can you kill men in temple without warning and call it anti terrorism, while in Pakistan, you declare the people terrorists for carrying out operation in red mosque, after through warnings and opportunity to lay arms.

Are you an eye witness? Khalistan movement was fanned by your country we punjabis know it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
WTF.. children and women were raped, while there fathers and husbands were being shot in cold blood, and you call it anti terrorism operation?

How can you kill men in temple without warning and call it anti terrorism, while in Pakistan, you declare the people terrorists for carrying out operation in red mosque, after through warnings and opportunity to lay arms.

Children and women raped during op Bluestar ??It's figament of your imagination.It's same as saying during op in red mosque hundreds of women were raped .

Without warning ???Whole world knew about the op , border from JK to Gujrat was sealed,trains buses stoped,7 divisions deployed in villages and a pathetic old member like you say that op was carried before any prior warning.

In between I can understand your frustration .:lol:
 
This was a painful event for india,but we have moved ahead and this type of thing will never happen again.
 
This was a painful event for india,but we have moved ahead and this type of thing will never happen again.

This from last year publishing dont know how much truth it holds but one can ask the the person who accused Big B


“I watched Amitabh Bachchan raising his arm and shouting the slogan- khun ka badla khun sae laengae” on DoorDarshan, Jagdish Kaur



Amritsar: Bibi Jagdish Kaur, a prime witness in November 1984 carnage, is reported to have said to “Times of India” (TOI) that everyone who had been watching DoorDarshan, India’s Government own TV Channel, saw how filmstar Amitabh Bachchan provoked the violance against the Sikhs.

“I wonder why no one in India lodged case against Amitabh Bachchan for provoking killing of Sikhs,” Jagdish Kaur is quoted to have said on Thursday, while talking to TOI.


It is notable that following Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984 by Bhai Satwant Singh and Bhai Beant Singh, India erupted in genocidal vioance against Sikhs.


Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh Bachhan were close friends
Reminiscing the terrible sad memories of violance against the Sikhs, Jagdish Kaur said, “I watched live relay on Doordarshan and saw Amitabh Bachchan raising his arm and shouting the slogan, ‘khun ka badla khun sae laengae’ (Blood for blood) two times. “

Jagdish Kaur is further reported to have said that everyone who had been watching Doordarshan was witness to how the bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan provoked the anti- Sikh riots. “I am not concerned that a case has been registered against him in Australia but all I want to know why nobody noticed Amitabh’s provoking statement in India,” Kaur asked.

She said that ever since she saw Amitabh spewing venom in full public glare she never watched any of his movies or programmes on TV. “Any mention of him or his work reminds me of his role in the 1984 genocide,” she said.

Recently a US-based Sikh human rights group, named Sikhs for Justice, lodged a criminal complaint against Bachchan in Australia for instigating and abetting 1984 anti Sikh riots. Australia’s ‘Criminal Code Act 1995′ states that Australian courts can have jurisdiction over cases involving crimes against humanity irrespective of whether the offense was committed in Australia or not.

Jagdish Kaur, then 42, had seen her husband and son being murdered in cold blood by a frenzied mob inside her house in Palam Colony (West Delhi) on November 1st 1984. She also saw her three brothers Narinder Pal Singh, 35, Raghwinder Singh, 28 and Kuldeep Singh ,21, all contractors with MES, burning to death by the mob while they were trying to save themselves.


Note: This news content was originally published at “Sikh Siyasat” on October 21, 2011.As the Sikhs in UK demanded arrest of Amitabh Bachchan, when he held the London Olympics torch at London on July 26, 2012; this news content is re-produced here to the knowledge of visiters/readers of Sikh Siyasat


http://www.sikhsiyasat.net/2012/07/...un-sae-laengae-on-doordarshan-jagdish-kaur-2/
 
Almost three decades after Operation Blue Star — the army operation that cleared the Golden temple complex in Amritsar of Sikh militants in 1984 — a journalist has spoken to some of the surviving dramatis personae of the event to recreate almost hour by hour what happened during those fateful six days. The documentary Operation Blue Star — the untold story currently being aired by Chandigarh-based television station Day and Night News run by veteran Punjab journalist Kanwar Sandhu has uncovered startling new evidence about the operation and the conduct of the militants and the security agencies since then.

Perhaps the most significant disclosures are by Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, a former Union Minister for Social Welfare, then with the Shiromani Akali Dal, who was present in the Guru Ram Das Sarai along with then Akali Dal president Harchand Singh Longowal and SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra.

He relates how at around 6 p.m. on 5th June, Mr. Longowal and Mr. Tohra were coerced almost at gunpoint to declare the formation of Khalistan and how they wriggled out of it.

“Five Sikh youth with self-loading rifles (SLRs) and a metallic box that was possibly a transmitter came to us and placed their SLRs with their barrels pointing towards all of us. They told us that the ‘box’ is connected with Gen Zia-Ul-Haq in Pakistan. They told Jathedar Tohra and Sant Longowal to declare the formation of Khalistan, so that the Pakistani Army can launch an attack. Both Tohra and Longowal are not alive today, so I am saying this under a solemn oath of allegiance to the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, because I want to speak the truth. Sant Longowal kept completely quiet. Then Jathedar Tohra said, ‘Dekho naujawano, eh jedi jang hai eh Hind-Punjab di jang hai. This is a battle between Sant Bhinderanwale and Mrs. Indira Gandhi and that since the former is leading the battle, it will be fair to ask him to issue the statement about the creation of Khalistan.’ He did not say that he will make the announcement for Khalistan. I don’t know how history will judge the Akali leadership but this is the truth. The youth then left the place and never came back.”

‘OUTRAGE BY ARMY’

Mr. Ramoowalia also sheds light on an alleged execution of some 30 Sikh youth by the army — the certainty of which has always been speculated. Talking about events in the wee hours of 6th June, when the army was combing through the complex, the narrative states that a Major of the 9 Kumaon regiment lined up some 20 Sikh youth and mowed them down with a machine gun. Recalling the incident, Mr. Ramoowalia says, “The captured Sikhs appeared to be from Kashmir and didn't look like Punjabi Sikhs. An officer waved a handkerchief and they were shot dead by the Army men with bullets which were sprayed on them from left to right and then right to left. I have never seen people being killed like that, with bullets. I have been a farmer and I have cut the crop and made its bundles. The crests of these Sikh youth collapsed similarly. No one moaned or uttered anything. I know my statement will be called into questioning, but 28 years after it happened, I am going on record on this.”

“The Army men were very angry, very abusive, mad with rage. Maybe they had lost their fellow Army men in the battle elsewhere in the Complex. This happened between 3 a.m. and 3.30 a.m., after the grenade blast nearby and after that it was my turn next as a part of the next group of Sikhs which was being queued up for killing. I was also told to sit down cross-legged and said my prayers. By chance, I remembered that I had in my pocket my identity card as an ex-Member of Parliament, of Lok Sabha. I flashed it and raised my hand and said, I am Ramoowalia, a former Member, Lok Sabha. I and all these persons, who are under your custody, belong to Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. We are non-violent people, [have] nothing to do with the armed struggle, we are here, just as a part of Akali Dal’s peaceful morcha.’ He asked me, ‘what is your name?’ I said, ‘my name is Ramoowalia.’ He asked me once again. I told him, ‘I am not misguiding. Not misleading. This is my identity card. Please check it up.’ God knows, the Army man was so angry, he could have just shot and killed me. But he said, ‘stop’. The other Army men lowered their guns. And two to three of them came up to me… and pushed me to a side. Then the officer again asked me, ‘Are you really Ramoowalia?’ I said, ‘I am really Ramoowalia.’ He said, ‘how are you here? You are not supposed to be here.’ I said, ‘why’? He said, ‘you are supposed to be with Sant Longowal.’ I said, ‘Sant Longowal is sitting in the adjoining room. I have come out’.”

Brigadier (retd.) Onkar Singh Goraya, who was then Col Admn in HQ 15 Corps corroborates the incident saying that Bhan Singh the then SGPC secretary also told him something similar. “He said the Army men in Darbar Sahib have done something awful. He said that some Sikh youth were lined up against a wall in the Golden Temple Complex and killed with a machine gun. He also showed me the wall in the Complex which had the bullet marks, when I went back for the second time in the afternoon,” he is quoted as saying in the documentary.

Mr. Sandhu has pieced together the account with the help of interviews with some 100 eyewitnesses and officials, records from army archives, interrogation reports of captured militants and also the actual Op Instructions issued by Maj Gen Brar on the eve of the operation. Says he, “This is an honest attempt to put the events in perspective and tell the story as it happened. If in the process it upsets any one, it cannot be helped.” Already the television station is getting hate mail from the Sikh diaspora in particular which is angry with its portrayal of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a militant who fortified the golden temple complex with arms and ammunition.

MILITANTS STOCKPILED WEAPONS

In 2010 the BBC had done a one-hour documentary “1984- A Sikh story”, which was never shown in India. Speaking to The Hindu, Mandeep Bajwa a consultant for the BBC documentary said, “This is the most authentic and credible account yet and I can see that the passage of time has emboldened many eyewitnesses to speak the truth. It exposes many fallacies like the one about arms and ammunition being planted in the temple complex by the Army. Mr. Sandhu has not only provided a rough inventory of the military hardware stockpiled inside but also detailed some instances of how they were smuggled in.”

Another revelation is that Maj Gen Shahbeg Singh (retd.), the disgraced army man who joined Bhindranwale’s group and organized the defences died on the evening of 5th June, before the actual battle began. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet and quoting Balwinder Singh Khojkipur a close associate of Bhindranwale who survived the operation, the documentary states that he was taken to the basement of Akal Takht where he died with his head on Bhindranwale’s lap. His covered body lay in a room there for a whole day until the armymen entered and cleared it the next day.

As for Bhindranwale himself —the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal that he headed refused to accept his death for many years — he died at 8.45 am on 6th June after being shot at from an armoured vehicle as he was moving towards the ‘Darshni Deodi’ to offer his prayers to Guru Ram Das. His body, contrary to reports of that time, was not identified by his brother Harcharan Singh Rode then serving as the subedar major in 61 Engineers Regiment in Jalandhar, but by the police and army doctors. Says Rode, “This is totally wrong. I did not issue any contradiction because I had got to see him and paid my last respects.”

Much has been written and said about the pilgrims trapped inside the complex many of who died in the crossfire. This series documents that they were actually discouraged from responding to the announcements being made by the district administration outside asking the pilgrims to come out. Apparently when five or six of them tried to come out with their hands in the air, they were shot down by militants from inside the temple complex. Their bodies lay near the ghanta ghar —where pilgrims wash their feet — on the morning of 5th June.

Operation Blue Star

not even remotely convinced in this account considering that it was indira gandhi who helped Bhindrawale become powerful.

Many well known persons like V M Tarkunde former Judge of Bombay High Court, have remarked - If Bhindranwale is arrested Longowal, Badal and Tohra can influence the moderate opinion and negotiations can be peacefully concluded. But this would strengthen the Akali Dal and that is precisely what Indira Gandhi would not allow. No matter what the consequences for India.

The politics of the Congress (I) was aimed at weakening the Akalis. Zail Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab during 1972-77. Unlike the previous chief ministers, he came from Ramgaria (artisan) caste and not the majority Jat caste. In order to widen his power base and weaken the Akalis, he encouraged the activities of Bhindranwale and his ultra-orthodox intolerant followers. Akali-Janata coalition was in power during 1978-1980. In order to create a rift in the Akali Dal, a new faction called Dal Khalsa led by Bhindranwale was started with blessings of Zail Singh, Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi on April 13, 1978. In the year following, some policemen in Punjab went on strike and were dismissed. During the elections of 1980, Zail Singh promised to take them back if Congres (I) returned to power that promise was fulfilled. We can imagine what kind of police force Punjab had.

With his masters Zail Singh (then Union Home Minister) and Indira Gandhi firmly back in power, Bhindranwale openly attacked his opponents – the Nirankaris. Their leader Baba Gurubachan Singh and his aide were shot dead in Delhi on 25th April 1980. The killer, carpenter Ranjit Singh, escaped. All the 20 persons against whom warrants were issued, either belonged to the Jatha of Bhindranwale or were his relatives or associates and were hiding under his protection. Organised political murders were now appearing on the scene.

One year after this event, a well known journalist wrote - "Though the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has solved the murder case, it is almost certain that the killers will never be arrested because they are alleged to be in the protection of Bhindranwale. Besides, the State police is not prepared to involve itself in the case by arresting the culprits. Repeated pleas by the Governor of Delhi to the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Darbara Singh and the letters written by the directors of CBI to the Punjab Government for help have been of no avail. The director of CBI wrote to State Government about ten days ago urging it to help the CBI by arresting the culprits and taking away their arms. But the State Government has not even acknowledged the letter. The present Lt Governor of Delhi, Mr.S.L. Khurana has again written to the Punjab Chief Minister pleading for the arrest of the suspects.


The CBI has almost completed the investigation and persons who are suspected in this case have been declared as proclaimed offenders. It was on the orders of Indira Gandhi that the murderers were not arrested or disarmed. " And exactly 3 years later, she had the audacity to say that she had no alternative to army action!!

Sometime in 1980, Government of India issued an order that recruitment into the armed forces would from now on be on the basis of the population of individual state. And thus as Sikhs are less than 2% of India's population, their percentage in the Armed Forces would drop sharply - from 15% to less than 2%. This is the height of absurdity. Gujaratis are 5% of India's population. Are we going to see Indian Army with 50,000 Gujarati soldiers? Different people have different attributes and these must be utilised for the country's good. Sikhs do not claim to be the only martial race but as long as they make excellent soldiers, they should be employed as such. It is only after this Government order that we hear about Khalistan.


In March/April 1981, on the day of Baishakhi, extremists of Dal Khalsa openly demanded Khalistan. G.S. Dhillon and J.S. Chauhan were present. Imam of Delhi Jama Masjid gave his blessings. (Why was he never arrested?). Indira Gandhi had sought the blessings of the same Imam for her 1980 election campaign and yet she had the audacity to say that there was really no alternative to army action in Amritsar!!!

Read more: Indira Gandhi and Bhindranwale
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It was the duty of Punjab Government to arrest Bhindranwale. But the Chief Minister Darbara Singh showed great reluctance and allowed Bhindranwale to dictate terms and when he gave himself up on 19th September 1981, 17 Akalis were killed in mob violence. Within days he was released on Indira Gandhi's orders, without any bail or bond.

Bhindranwale had now become a hero. By Indira Gandhi's blessings he was above law. He could literally get away with murder. He visited other provinces to collect funds for his cause and in Delhi even met Zail Singh and Buta Singh. On 29th Sept. 1981, Dal Khalsa members hijacked an Indian Airlines Boeing 757 to Lahore. But as long as they weakened the Akalis, Dal Khalsa had the blessings of Indira Gandhi and Zail Singh. And yet Indira Gandhi had the audacity to say that she had no option but to send in the Army in the Golden Temple!!!


In December 1981, the new chief of Nirankaris, Baba Hardev wanted to make a deal with the Akalis. Nirankaris would delete the offending passages in their holy books in exchange for peace. But Chief Minister Darbara Singh stepped in and wrecked the deal. Congress (I) were not interested in tranquillity and sanity in Punjab.

On 26th April, 1982, severed heads of some cows were thrown in front of two Hindu temples in Amritsar, an act which was denounced by all Sikh organisations. Dal Khalsa claimed the responsibility and were completely isolated. At that time Punjab Government could have acted firmly against Dal Khalsa. But how could they allow any easing of pressure on the Akalis? It was later discovered that the cows were already dead and not slaughtered. And that act was carried out by some agents in the dark. But in retaliation Hindus threw biddis and brickbats at the Golden Temple in broad daylight. Why did the police not prevent this incidence?


Six months later, Congress (I) started raising a force of Punjabi speaking non-Sikhs to malign the Akalis. The men would undergo a crash programme of learning Gurubani and Gurumukhi, growing beard and long hair so as to make them indistinguishable from the Sikhs. After training, these men were sent to Punjab to infiltrate into Gurudwaras, Akali ranks and the Sikh organisations and encourage extremism. They were to incite hatred and create communal tensions, write threatening letters, carry out acts of bank robberies, sabotage, desecrating religious places, invoke strong police retaliation during demonstrations, arson and looting - all dressed up as Sikhs. Congress (I) being in power, they had immunity from prosecution and Sikhs would get the blame. (Times of India, 26 February, 1984; P.T. I - press release from Amritsar of 23 Dec.1983; U.N. I- press release of 26 Feb 1984 throw some light on this subject.)

Read more: Indira Gandhi and Bhindranwale
 
All this BS is irrelevant. Just let the perpetrators (at the top) of the 1984 riots be locked up and this blot on India will fade faster than many would think possible.


This is incident is painful but Sikhs (99.99999999% of them anyway) hold not ill-feeling to their fellow Indians- why should they? The only issue Sikhs have is that the high-ranking perpetrators have not been brought to justice and this still hurts.





I plead with all Indians to do what they can to get these scum locked up.





Op Bluestar is a separate issue and most Sikhs have rationlised this- to an extent.
 

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