'Paid with her life': Chidambaram calls Operation Blue Star a mistake that cost Indira Gandhi

Senior Congress leader and former home minister P Chidambaram has said that the Operation Blue Star of June 1984 was a "mistake" and former prime minister Indira Gandhi "paid for it with her life."

Chidambaram was speaking at a discussion on journalist Harinder Baweja's book They Will Shoot You, Madam, at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival in Himachal Pradesh's Kasauli on Saturday when he made the remarks.

"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," he said.

He further added that Gandhi cannot be solely blamed for the "mistake". "Blue Star was the wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake. But that mistake 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?"

Operation Blue Star was carried out by the Indian Armed Forces between June 1-10 in 1984, with the stated objective of removing Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other militants involved in separatist movement in Punjab from the buildings of the holiest site of Sikhism, in Amritsar. The operation marked the beginning of insurgency in Punjab.

Though Bhindranwale was killed after the Indian Army stormed the premises of the Golden Temple, the Akal Takht was turned to rubble, leading to massive resentment among the Sikh community.

Five months after the operation, on October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated in an act of revenge by her two Sikh bodyguards. Following her assassination, there was widespread violence against Sikhs in India with several Congress leader suspected to have instigated the pogroms.

As per government estimates, about 2,800 Sikhs were killed in Delhi and 3,350 nationwide.