OPERATION BLUE STAR: A SUCCESS OR A FAILURE

Was Operation blue star as stated one of the successful operations of Indian Army, really successful? About 11000 armed troops from army, CRPF, BSF & Punjab police were tasked to engage merely a handful of Sikh extremist militants in a bloody battle leaving behind piles of corpses of militants, soldiers and civilians. It is quite tough to believe that about 5000 civilians were gunned down during this operation. But it is the grim reality.

First of all, let’s have a glimpse of the operation. Operation Blue Star was an anti-militancy operation carried out mainly by Army. It was started on 3 June, 1984 and lasted till 8^TH by the order of then prime minister Indra Gandhi in order to establish control over the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab and to remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the complex buildings. Bhindranwale, the militant’s leader along with his followers had earlier taken residence in Harmandir Sahib and made it his headquarters. They were demanding a separate territory named ‘KHALISTAN” and was accused of the assassination of Nirankari Gurbachan Singh and the Punjab Police Deputy Inspector General A. S. Atwal. In this large scale operation infantry, artillery and armored regiments of army were deployed and pounders, APCS and tanks were used.

Now let’s jump into the real scenario of those days of the operation and feel the draconian situation prevailing out there. I'll explain it by giving the real battle situation day-vise.

The Planning

Prime Minister Indra Gandhi calls Lt. Gen. S. K. Sinha, then Vice-Chief of Indian Army and asks him to prepare a position paper for assault on the Golden Temple. Lt. Gen. Sinha advises against any such move, because of its sacrilegious nature according to Sikh tradition. He suggests the government to adopt an alternative solution. Prime minister makes a controversial decision to replace him with General Arun Shridhar Vaidya as the Chief of the Indian army. General Vaidya assisted by Lt. Gen. K Sundarji as Vice-Chief, plans and coordinates Operation Blue Star. Now the operation has been planned and ready to be implicated.

June 1st, 1984

It is 1240 hrs and the army has given order to BSF and CRPF to engage the militants with small arms and machine guns. The Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force has started firing at "Guru Ram Das Langar" building.

June 2nd, 1984

The Indian army has sealed the international border from Kashmir to Ganganagar, Rajasthan. At least seven divisions of army are being deployed in villages of Punjab. It is almost 8pm and media and the press are being gagged by the army. Army has suspended the rail, road and air services in Punjab. Foreigner’s and NRI’s entry has been banned and the water and electricity supply has been cut off. Now there is a total blackout in the city.

June 3rd, 1984

There is a complete curfew with the army and para-military patrolling the whole Punjab. The army has sealed off all routes of ingress and exit around the temple complex. In other words Punjab has been totally cut off from the other states and the rest of world.

June 4th, 1984

Suddenly a series of bombings are heard. The army is bombarding the historic Ramgarhia Bungas, the water tank, and other fortified positions. The army helicopters can be seen all over. The army is using Ordnance QF 25 pounder and is destroying the outer defenses laid by General Shabeg Singh. Now the army is placing tanks and APCs on the road separating the Guru Nanak niwas building. The artillery and small arms firing stops for a while, and Gurcharan Singh Tohra, former head of SGPC is sent to negotiate with Bhindranwale, however, he stood unsuccessful. The firing resumed again. By the end of the day Hundreds or thousands of Sikhs are known to be killed in the ferocious battle.

June 5th, 1984

It is morning time and shelling has started on the building inside the Harmandir Sahib complex. A clear gunshot and grenade bursts can be heard. The 9th division has launched a frontal attack on the Akal Takht. Now it is 1900 hrs and the BSF and CRPF has started attacking Hotel Temple View and Brahm Boota Akhara respectively on the southwest fringes of the complex. 3hrs have passed and both the structures are now under their control. The Army simultaneously has also attacked various other gurdwaras.  Now the general has decided to launch a simultaneous attack from three sides. 10 Guards, 1 Para Commandos and Special Frontier Force (SFF) would attack from the main entrance of the complex, and 26 Madras and 9 Kumaon battalions from the hostel complex side entrance from the south. A havoc situation is being noticed- “As the troops entered the temple from the Northern entrance, they were gunned down by light machine-gun fire from both sides of the steps. The few commandos who did get down the steps were driven back by a barrage of fire from the building on the south side of the sacred pool, and thus they failed to reach the pavement around the Sacred Pool.” Many commandos from the best divisions of army have been gunned down. Three tanks and an APC are now entering the complex and suddenly a RPG hits an APC and immobilizes it. By 7:30am the tanks have got the clearance to fire their main guns (105 mm high explosive Squash Head shells).

June 6th, 1984 

A clear and loud shell burst is heard. Vijayanta tanks has shelled and destroyed the Akal Takhat! A group trying to escape has mowed down by machine gun fire. But still the resistance continues from the neighboring structures of the Akal Takhat.

June 7th, 1984

By the morning the army has gained stronghold over the Harmandir Sahib complex. Almost all the militants have been killed but the army is still positioned in the complex.

June 8th, 1984

Again some gunshots are being heard. Army has killed the remaining four militants holed up in the basement of the tower. Finally the operation has been completed. A galaxy of corpuses is lying in a pool of blood inside the complex. The whole building has been severely destructed. Bullet marks can be easily seen on the walls of dilapidated building. A chaos is all around the city. Some more people are also reported killed in the village area.

So this was the real condition during those days of the so called ‘successful operation’. According to some sources about 5000 civilians and more than 700 soldiers were killed. In the aftermath of the incident at least 4000 Sikh soldiers mutinied at different locations in India in protest, with some reports of large-scale pitched battles being fought to bring mutineers under control. The operation also led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31 October 1984 by two of her Sikh bodyguards, triggering the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. 

The operation was heavily criticized by media and human rights. The use of artillery in the congested inner city of Amritsar proved deadly to many civilian bystanders living near Harmandir Sahib. The media blackout throughout the Punjab resulted in widespread doubt regarding the official stories and aided the promotion of hearsay and rumors. S. K. Sinha, the GOC of the Indian Army who was sacked just before the attack, criticized the Government's claim that the attack represented a "last resort". He also stated that the operation would have been conducted in an entirely different manner if he had planned it. He also pointed out that a few days before the operation, the Home Minister had announced that the troops would not be sent to Harmandir Sahib but the operation seems to have been in plans much earlier. Also the timing of Operation Blue Star coincided with a Sikh religious day, the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, the founder of the Harmandir Sahib. Sikhs from all over the world visit the temple on this day. Many Sikhs view the timing and attack by the Indian Army as an attempt to inflict maximum casualties on Sikhs and demoralize them, and the government is in turn blamed for the inflated number of civilian dead for choosing to attack on this day. Before the attack by army a media blackout was imposed in Punjab. journalists were picked up from their hotels at 5 am in a military bus, taken to the adjoining border of the state of Haryana and "were abandoned there". A group of journalists who later tried to drive into Punjab were stopped at the road block at Punjab border and were threatened with shooting if they proceeded.  The press criticized these actions by government as an "obvious attempt to attack the temple without the eyes of the foreign press on them". According to some sources several suspected Sikh militants had been shot with their hands tied. In an interview a doctor said that he was picked up by the army and forced to conduct postmortems despite the fact he had never done any postmortem examination before. Army was accused with the violation of human rights. In addition, Indira Gandhi has been accused of using the attack for political ends. Dr. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer stated that Indira Gandhi attacked the Harmandir Sahib complex to present herself as a great hero in order to win forthcoming elections.

 But the question still remains that couldn’t this operation have started few days later? Or couldn't it be done in some other peaceful way? Now it is all up to you to decide whether the action or the decision taken by the ‘IRON LADY ‘was right or was a huge blunder!!

Excerpts- dailymail.co.uk
indiatoday.intoday.in
thehindu.com
wikipedia.com