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Chidambaram said that people cannot blame former PM Indira Gandhi for Operation Blue Star, a 984 military op to flush out Sikh separatists from Amritsar’s Golden Temple.
P Chidambaram, veteran Congress leader, said that Operation Bluestar was “a wrong way of retreiving the Golden Temple”, referring to the operation to remove Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday at an event said that Operation Blue Star, the Indian military’s operation to flush out Sikh separatists from inside of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was “the wrong way” to secure the temple.
He said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who greenlit the operation, “paid the price of that mistake with her life” and said she should not be blamed for it because it was a “cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil service”.
“You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi. Would you?” he questioned during a panel discussion at an event.
Operation Blue Star was a military operation carried out by the Indian Army in June 1984 to remove Khalistani armed separatists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab.
The operation lasted from June 1 to June 8, 1984 and was a complex military operation that led to significant casualties among soldiers and civilians even though the violent separatists were eliminated.
It also had far-reaching consequences as eventually led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, which triggered widespread anti-Sikh riots across India.
“No disrespect to any military officers here but that (Blue Star) was a wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. Few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army,” the former finance and home minister said.
“Blue Star was the wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake,” he said.
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev…Read More
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev… Read More
October 12, 2025, 11:00 IST
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