New Delhi, Oct 12
After ex-Union Minister P. Chidambaram termed Operation Blue Star a "wrong" approach, the BJP launched a fierce attack on Congress, calling the 1984 military action a "political misadventure" carried out under the direction of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
Chidambaram made the remarks on Saturday while moderating a discussion on the book 'They Will Shoot You, Madam' by journalist Harinder Baweja at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh.
During the session, the former Home Minister said that Operation Blue Star, which was launched on Indira Gandhi's orders to flush out terrorists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was the "wrong way" and that Gandhi "paid with her life for that mistake".
He, however, noted that the operation was a "cumulative decision of the army, the police, the intelligence, and the civil service", asserting that Gandhi could not be solely blamed for it.
Reacting sharply, the BJP said that the Sikh community will "never forgive" Congress for Operation Blue Star.
Party national spokesperson R.P. Singh criticised the Congress and said the operation was "completely avoidable", adding that a strategy similar to Operation Black Thunder could have achieved the same objective without bloodshed.
In a post on X, Singh wrote, "As a Nationalist, I strongly believe that Operation Blue Star was completely avoidable, as rightly mentioned by former Home Minister P. Chidambaram. A more strategic approach like Operation Black Thunder, where electricity and water supply to the Golden Temple were cut off and militants were compelled to surrender, could have achieved the objective without desecrating the sanctity of Sri Harmandir Sahib and the Akal Takhat, and without the tragic loss of innocent devotees' lives."
He accused Indira Gandhi of choosing the "path of confrontation for electoral gain", in the view of the 1984 parliamentary elections, by portraying the Sikh community "as anti-national".
"In doing so, she got trapped in her own political web and ultimately paid for it with her life. But the real tragedy was borne by my community -- over 3,000 Sikhs were brutally massacred in Delhi and more than 30,000 killed across Punjab, victims of a calculated political design that tore apart the social fabric of the nation," Singh said.
"History must record the truth: Operation Blue Star was not a national necessity -- it was a political misadventure," he added.
Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that Chidambaram's remarks expose the Congress party's "historic mistake" of committing atrocities against the Sikh community.
"Stating that Indira Gandhi was not responsible for this is not right at all. She is responsible as the Prime Minister of the nation. This was her conscious decision, out of her hatred for the Sikhs, because of which Sikhs were killed. The party, which was responsible for this, is surely accepting that it was a mistake, but P. Chidambaram should remember that the Sikhs will never forget the party and Indira Gandhi," Sirsa added.
