New Delhi: Former Union minister P Chidambaram said that Operation Blue Star, conducted in June 1984 to flush out militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was carried out in the “wrong way”. He added that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi paid the price for this mistake with her life, though the decision was not hers alone.
This marks the second major comment on Operation Blue Star in the past six months. Earlier, on May 4, a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went viral, in which he said that the 1984 operation was a mistake and that he was ready to take responsibility for the errors made by the Congress in the 1980s.
According to The Indian Express, Chidambaram was speaking in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh, on Saturday during the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival. He took part in a discussion with journalist Harinder Baweja on her book They Will Shoot You, Madam. Baweja remarked that Indira Gandhi had paid the price for her decision on Operation Blue Star by sacrificing her life.
Responding to this, Chidambaram said, “Without insulting any army officer, I want to say that it was the wrong way to reclaim the Golden Temple. A few years later, we showed the right way to regain control without the use of the army. Blue Star was the wrong approach, and I believe Mrs Gandhi paid for that mistake with her life.”
He further said that during his visits to Punjab, he realised the political demand for Khalistan or separation had almost ended. “Today’s main problem is economic… Most of the illegal immigrants are from Punjab,” he added.
