Indira Gandhi’s Assassination Linked to Operation Blue Star ‘Mistake’

Operation Blue Star, the military operation conducted at the Golden Temple in 1984, was a ‘mistake’ and the ‘wrong approach,’ according to veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram. During a discussion at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival, Chidambaram explicitly linked the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination to this decision. He argued that while Gandhi paid the ultimate price, the responsibility for the flawed execution of Operation Blue Star was shared across multiple government branches, including the army, police, intelligence agencies, and civil services. Chidambaram, speaking on a book by journalist Harinder Baweja, suggested that a less confrontational strategy, one that kept the army out of the direct retrieval of the Golden Temple, could have been employed. He pointed to the successful resolution of similar situations years later as evidence of this alternative path. Furthermore, Chidambaram highlighted the prevailing economic challenges in Punjab as a more pressing issue than the political calls for a separate Khalistan, which he believes have largely faded.