New Delhi: Sonia Gandhi in her memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’ writes about how Indira Gandhi was left in tears after watching footage of the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, distressed by the damage to the Golden Temple and the large number of lives lost in the Army operation in June 1984.
“A week or so later an intelligence official brought to Mrs Gandhi a film with harrowing visuals of the aftermath: Bodies lying on the ground, one of them Bhindranwale, who had been killed in the fierce battle; fortifications, underground traps from where soldiers had been shot; heavy weapons and rocket launchers still in place on turrets and fortified positions,” Sonia Gandhi writes.
“As my mother-in-law watched the slow-moving record, I could see her face wet with tears—tears of pain and regret, I think: Sorrow at the manner in which the siege had ended, at the large number of lives lost,” she adds.
Operation Blue Star was launched in June 1984 to flush out Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed supporters from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The Army entered the shrine on 4 June, three days after the operation began.
Sonia writes that the complex was more heavily fortified than the security agencies had reported. “It turned out to be fully fortified with heavy weaponry, much more than the security system had reported.”
After a bitter battle with many casualties on both sides, the armed forces regained control of the holy shrine. The action had resulted in considerable damage and destruction to the complex. “To the Sikh community, that was nothing less than sacrilege,” she writes.
The memoir says Indira had been reluctant to order military action because of her close relationship with the Sikh community and the hurt it could cause.
“Her own instincts had held her back from taking any action that would potentially wound Sikh sentiments. Her own relationship with the Sikh community was a deep and strong one,” Sonia Gandhi writes.
However, the situation changed after intelligence reports suggested that Bhindranwale and his associates were planning to declare Khalistan an independent state and hoist its flag at the Golden Temple on 15 August 1984.
“That would have been nothing less than treason, an act of war against the Indian Union, with perilous consequences for the country,” Sonia writes. “Reluctantly, feeling she had no choice, she ordered the armed forces to act in the operation code-named Blue Star.”
Sonia also writes about the violence that followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two of her Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984. Recalling her visit to the affected areas, she describes the suffering of women and children and the pleas of women who had lost contact with family members. “The riots of 1984 remain a tragic and shameful chapter in the history of our nation.”
“Justice has been hard to come by for the victims.” she adds in her memoir.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: ‘She did think that it was a mistake’— Sonia Gandhi on Indira’s regret over the Emergency