• Source:JND
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Congress senior leader and former union minister P Chidambaram on Sunday stated that the Operation Blue Star, the military operation to flush out the separatists from the Golden Temple in Punjab's Amritsar in 1984, was the "wrong way" to execute the mission, adding that the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had to "pay with her life for the mistake". However, Chidambaram further clarified that Indira Gandhi should not be blamed for the decision, adding that it was a “cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil service".

While moderating a discussion on a book by journalist Harinder Baweja on assassination of Indira Gandhi, the former union minister stated that the army should have been kept out of the holy place. "No disrespect to any service officers present here but that was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. Three to four years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple, by keeping out the army," Chidambaram stated.

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"There was a way to retrieve and capture all the militants. The Blue Star was the wrong way. I agreed that Ms 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. We can't blame it on only Ms Gandhi," the Congress leader added.

Operation Blue Star: Details

Operation Blue Star was conducted to crush a separatist movement in Punjab between June 1 and June 8 in 1984. The operation was carried out to kill all the terrorists hiding in the Golden Temple, including their leader and radical preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. However, the operation received massive backlash from the Sikh community, leading to assassination of Indira Gandhi by her own Sikh bodyguards.

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