Explained Books: 38 years later, an insider’s account of Operation Blue Star | Explained News,The Indian Express
Ramesh Inder Singh’s 'Turmoil in Punjab: Before and After Op Blue Star' is an insider’s account of the events that precipitated Blue Star and also its aftermath that led to the killing of a Prime Minister, a Chief Minister and thousands of innocents.
Thirty-eight years after Operation Blue Star, here is an account by a Punjab bureaucrat who saw first-hand the state’s steep descent into violence, and then its arduous climb back to peace. Ramesh Inder Singh, who retired as Chief Secretary of Punjab, was Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar when troops stormed the Golden Temple to flush out militants in June 1984.
Singh’s Turmoil in Punjab: Before and After Op Blue Star is an insider’s account of the events that precipitated Blue Star and also its aftermath that led to the killing of a Prime Minister, a Chief Minister and thousands of innocents. Divided into two parts, it also takes a brief look at the seeds of the tumult.
It is rich in anecdotes — recounting how, for instance, Singh as an SDM first met the fiery preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale through Simranjit Singh Mann, then an IPS officer posted at Faridkot — and sweeping, covering politics, religion, and the foreign hand (an euphemism for the ISI) that brought Punjab to the brink.
A short chapter draws a parallel between Blue Star and the siege of the Grand Mosque of Mecca by the radical group Brethren in 1979. Its members were flushed out by an armed operation that lasted 14 days. Singh says the Pakistan army, which was part of that operation, orchestrated the circumstances leading to Blue Star. It was an ISI-guided group of militants who triggered a clash between Babbar Khalsa and Bhindrawale’s men after which the latter moved from the serai to the Akal Takht.
Blue Star was kept such a top secret that even the IB director did not know about it. The Cabinet sub-committee on political affairs met in May 1984 in which Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee opposed Army action but was overruled by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. She maintained contact with Bhindranwale through R L Bhatia (an MP from Amritsar) who was in touch with latter’s confidant Bhai Amrik Singh, R I Singh writes. The book deconstructs the making of Bhindranwale into a demagogue by Congress that was seeking a counter to the Akalis.
Rating: 5