'Op Blue Star was wrong... Indira Gandhi paid with her life': Congress MP P Chidambaram

Kasauli: Congress MP P Chidambaram criticised the Operation Blue Star under the Indira Gandhi-led government in 1984, describing it as "the wrong way", and said that the former Prime Minister paid with her life for the "mistake".

Speaking at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival 2025 on Saturday, the former Union Home and Finance Minister said that Operation Black Thunder was the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple, by keeping the Army out of the Sikh worship place.

The June 1984 Operation Blue Star was a cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil services, he said.


He said, "No disrespect to any military officers here, but that (Blue Star) was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. A few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army."

"Mrs Gandhi (former PM Indira Gandhi) paid with her life for that mistake. It was a cumulative decision of the Army, Police, intelligence and the civil services. You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi," the former Union Minister said.

Chidambaram was addressing a gathering during a discussion on the 'They Will Shoot You, Madam: My life through conflict' with author Harinder Baweja.

Operation Blue Star was a 10-day military operation spanning from June 1 to June 10, 1984.

June 6, 1984, marked the day when the Indian Army, under Operation Blue Star, stormed into the Golden Temple on orders of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to contain Sikh militancy under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in Punjab. It was reported that Bhindranwale had stashed large quantities of arms on the Golden Temple premises.

Bhindranwale was the head of the radical Sikh outfit Damdami Taksal. He, along with his armed followers, was killed during Operation Blue Star, launched by the Indian Army to flush out the militants from the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.

The Operation was heavily criticised. Months later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards at her New Delhi residence on October 31, 1984.

Beant Singh and Satwant Singh were Indira Gandhi's bodyguards and killed her on October 31, 1984, at her residence.