The recent controversy relating to involvement of British Special forces in Blue Star operation of 1984 has unfolded many mystries as well as provided aswers to several unanswered questions. No doubt blue star operation of 1984, is a very sensitive issue and anything being said or revealed about it is certainly going to cause tremors in India's politics. It also provides an insight into how a decision made after a period of indecision can be costly both in the terms of losses of life and leading to assassination of a Prime minister and creating a hallocaust leaving more than eight thousand people dead. The back ground of rise of terrorism in Punjab had many dimensions and its roots can be traced back to imposition of emergency in 1975 and its opposition by Akali Dal leaders to whom Mrs Gandhi wanted to teach a lesson.It may be a repetitive in content to reveal those days happenings and unfortunate incidences but these are quite relevant in analysis of many untold facts snd mystries.
By 1981, Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale, a radical leader of Sikhs have became a force to recon with in political arena of Punjab. He was arrested on the charge of murder of Lala Jagat Narayan, chief editor of Punjab Keshri, but was released due to lack of proof. After that he emerged as a leader of Sikh commununity.Insider story suggests that rise of Bhindrawale was a handy work of Mrs. Gandhi to counter growing power of Akali Dal as well as to weaken their control on Akal takth . Punjab being a sensitive State at India's boarder touching Pakistan, any disturbance or rise of terrorism will be well supported by it . Therefore, both Congress and its main leaders made big blunder in the initial stage of growth of militancy in this state . Once the tiger was out of cage then it was difficult to control and contain it..At this stage political strategists of the Congress Party started thinking about solutions of terrorism in Punjab. Mrs Gandhi invited R.N.Kao the founder of RAW and he became her de facto national security advisor to play important role in this matter. Rao as the Director General Security suggested for a surgical mission named as Operation Sundown. From the very beginning , Mrs. Gandhi was skeptical about effectiveness of this mission due to civilian casualties and sensitiveness of the Sikh community towards Akal Takht.At this stage Mrs Gandhi wrote to her counterpart in Britain to help Indian Government. Two officers from elite SAS came to India on 23rd February, 1983, to draw a workable plan to root out extremists from the Golden Temple. According to UK Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood"Indians were fairly unprepared for action and were applying a sledgehammer to crack a nut principle to the whole operation. " Our role was purely advisory and no commercial and military sale are associated with this act.He however said that Operation Bluestar was an " utter tragedy".
Another story even goes to be more sensational that six army officers from a classified military unit called Special Group were send to Sayeret Matkal in Israel to get training for rescuing mission. With all these background of covert action plan preparation hardlinners in Government thought that it is better to go for surgical operation but a group led by Rajeev Gandhi was skeptical about effectiveness of this mission and wanted to negotiate with militants as well as moderate leaders of Punjab. With too many thoughts going around , Mrs Gandhi was unable to take any decision and killing of innocent people continued and it also enhanced confidence of Mr. Bhindrawale that his demand for Khalistan -an independent state for Sikhs was bearing fruits. Their courage became so much so high that they killed DIG Mr. A.S. Atwal inside the Golden Temple in April 1983.
Read about the Anti-Sikh riots here
Then Mrs Gandhi was left with no option but to order a military action on 5th June 1984 under guidance of the then army chief General A.K.Vaidya..The rest story is well known to the whole world. Commandos of 56th Company entered into the Golden Temple and 83 armymen plus 492 civilian casualties were reported.
Again there was great miscalculation on the part of the army about the strength and preparation of Bhindrawale and his activists led by Rtd. Major General Shabeg Singh who was court martialled for corruption changes. He had fortified the whole golden temple in such a way that at initial stage losses of army was very heavy. The terrorists were even armed with RPG and to mobilise army thee Vijayanta tanks enterd and shelled Akal Takht.Sentiments ran very high and the then President Zail Singh visited The Golden Temple on 8th June and a lieutenant colonel was seriously wounded by a sniper targeted at the President. He was shocked to see the damage caused by military operation to the whole Golden temple. Army took two more days to clear terrorists from the Golden Temple. And the tragic story came to an end. Mrs Gandhi was shocked to hear from General Vaidya about casualties. She wrote a personal letter to Mrs. Thatcher soon after the operation on 14th June "it is never easy to undertake security action involving a place of worship--But this place, so sacred to the people of the Sikh faith, had been converted by terrorists into a base of operations. We did know that arms were being collectd there But only after last week actions did we realise that how vast and sophsophisticated these weapons were. We had no choice but to send an army unit which exercised the utmost restraint using a minimum of force. Many in the Sikh community have been shaken by this trsumatic event. The process of healing and conciliation will take time but we shall persevere". This generated a great heat and heart burning among Sikh community in the county and agitation in Punjab ,however,militancy was on decline in the country.
The moral of the whole story is that why did UK government release the document relating to Blue Star operation at this juncture when election is at the corner. What interest they carry? Was UK support in Blue Star operation related with growing military interest in India? These questions will keep troubling Indian intelligencia. Was sale of Jaguar fighters related with this support? Keep on asking such questions and future will give answer. .
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