Indira ordered Op Bluestar with a heavy heart: Fotedar
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 29
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the Operation Bluestar with a heavy heart, her long-time aide and senior Congress leader Makhan Lal Fotedar said in his memoirs which will hit the stands tomorrow.
Fotedar, a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee, has in his book “The Chinar Leaves” claimed that Indira Gandhi took the decision after her efforts to address Punjab turmoil failed to elicit favourable response from the then Akali leadership.
Fotedar writes of the Akali leadership of early 1980s being “mute spectators to the rise of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale” and of how several rounds of discussions with them on ongoing killings in Punjab led nowhere.
Citing the killings of Lala Jagat Narain of the Hind Samachar group on September 9, 1981 and of AS Atwal, DIG, Jalandhar, on April 25, 1983, Fotedar in a chapter titled Punjab turmoil, writes: “The government was torn between respecting the sentiments of the people and taking action against those responsible for the heinous crimes. In the meantime, Bhindranwale and his cohorts also started talking of Khalistan. They had the full support of Pakistan. Bhindranwale became a larger-than-life figure. He started mediating in disputes. His henchmen picked up and killed anyone they wanted to …GS Tohra and other Akali leaders were mute spectators. Instead of attempting to improve the situation, they added fuel to the fire. They started attending ‘bhogs’ of the slain terrorists.”
Adding that by 1983, militancy had spread across Punjab with Hindus being killed in the process, the Congress leader who was working with Indira Gandhi at the time says, “We made several efforts to resolve the situation. Several meetings were held with the Akali leadership. The idea was to resolve the issues facing the common people so that any feeling of alienation among the masses could be addressed. However, the Akalis did not respond favourably.”
The HarperCollins publication, excerpts of which are available with The Tribune, chronicles Bhindranwale’s movement to the Golden Temple in December 1983 and his act of hoisting a Khalistani flag from one of its buildings on January 26, 1984.
“Intelligence was received that Bhindranwale might announce Khalistan from within the Golden Temple… Sant Longowal announced the beginning of a grain morcha throughout the state starting June 3, 1984. Nothing could be more inappropriate than this. A lot of attempts were made to dissuade him and the Akali leadership …but they were adamant. The unity of the nation was threatened. The Golden Temple presented a dilemma to Indiraji. She was full of respect for the temple and the sentiments of the ordinary humble Sikhs. Torn between these sentiments and the need to save the nation, she decided to follow the call of duty. It was decided to use the Army to call Bhindranwale’s bluff. With a heavy heart, Indiraji took this decision,” Fotedar says about Operation Bluestar.
