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Monday, December 22, 2025
TopicOperation Blue Star

Topic: Operation Blue Star

A bloody miscalculation called Blue Star

Operation Blue Star was as much a story of incompetence as it was about incredible military courage. The Indian Army generals misread and miscalculated. As did Bhindranwale.

Since 1984

From Operation Blue Star to the anti-Sikh riots to India's ascent to Siachen, 1984 was a pivotal year in India's post-Independence history. And I was there to report it.

The audacity of incompetence

The greatest mystery of these 30 years, however, is how and why, with such elaborate planning, the army brass miscalculated on Blue Star so horribly.

Once upon a bloody time

Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale did not run a parliament or panchayat in the Golden Temple. His was a medieval court with sub-medieval instant justice.

The rich and the ostrich

Absolute truths do not matter. Which is why, even in landslide election verdicts in India, voter swings are rarely in double digits.

The idea of Indira

Mrs Gandhi was no doctrinaire figure, with all her wisdom or ideas inherited from her father. She changed and evolved, often for the better, sometimes not quite so

On Camera

Violence over Osman Hadi is about Islamist Bangladesh. India-baiting is a distraction

The attack on Chhayanaut, newspaper offices, and the public lynching of a Hindu man show that Bangladesh is heading toward Islamist rule, far removed from electoral democracy.

China is taking India to WTO over subsidies, again. Here’s what it’s arguing before trade body

Dispute will now move to consultative process, which allows the two sides to come to an amicable agreement within 60 days.

Israel has ‘realised who its real friend is’, eyes defence expansion in India amid arms curbs by others

It is argued that India-Israel ties are moving from buyer–seller dynamic to one focused on joint development & manufacturing partnership, a shift 'more durable' than traditional arms sales.

Dhurandhar shows hard cinema is soft power and Pakistan is unapologetically the target

If Pathaan gave both conservatives and liberals room to hide, Dhurandhar extends no such courtesy. Aditya Dhar ripped open that tent of hypocrisy and turned the knife.