June 3-8, 1984

Anniversary of Operation Blue Star When the
Government of Indira Ghandi Invaded the Holiest Site
of the Sikhs in Amritsar

– J. Singh –

This week is the 42nd anniversary of Operation Blue Star in Punjab. Around 700,000 security forces with tanks, armoured cars and air force occupied Punjab. The Golden Temple and 38 other Gurudwaras were attacked. Thousands of men, women and children were killed. The right to life “guaranteed” in the Indian Constitution was suspended. All the political parties with positions of power and privilege supported the operation. The Indian army had been practicing for two years in Chakrata for the attack, having made a model of the Golden Temple. In the years following the operation, many other operations including the vile Operation Black Thunder and Operation Woodrose were carried out. Human rights organizations estimated that more than 100,000-150,000 people were killed.

Why was the operation and genocide carried out? Ever since Punjab was bloodied and cleansed on a religious basis in 1947 by the British and their collaborators, leaders of Congress and the Muslim League, the people of Punjab have been waging battles for their economic, social, cultural and national rights. It was after a long and bitter struggle that Punjabi was made the official language of Punjab in 1967. With the introduction of chemical industrial agriculture and the so-called green revolution the production of food grains increased tremendously by shedding the blood and sweat of the people of Punjab. But input costs for farmers kept skyrocketing while the price of their produce continuously lagged behind. It led to the immiseration of farmers, toilers and workers with indebtedness, unemployment and concentration of land and wealth in fewer and fewer hands, worsening all the socio-economic, political and cultural problems. While Punjab became the bread basket of India, farmers were pauperized and thousands committed suicide.

Farmers Kisan Mahapanchayat (mass assembly) in Moga, Punjab in January 2025

The central government of the corporates in Delhi also took control of waters, finances, electricity and other resources just like the colonial government had done in the 1840s. As a result a popular non-partisan mass movement developed against the internal colonization of Punjab by Delhi. The central government of Indira Gandhi, rather than dealing with socioeconomic, political, cultural and national rights of people, turned it into a law and order problem, just as the Delhi Durbar had done in Hyderabad, Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and other areas before Punjab.[1] To maximize their profits, the corporates have turned Delhi Durbar into a prison of toilers, nations, nationalities and working women and men.

In order to attack and divide the Punjabis, the central government in Delhi used its favorite weapon of inciting people against each other on a religious basis. For example, when the attack on the Golden Temple failed to divide people on a religious basis, government agencies would carry out crimes against the people by pulling people of one religion out of buses during curfew and killing them. These killers were never found. In many cases criminals were released from jails to kill people and then they would go back to jail. It is to the credit of the people of Punjab that not a single incident of violence by any community against another took place. Violence was always state-organized by goons it paid and protected.

Under the direction of the central government, kidnapping and killing the young men became a business. Police would kidnap young men and threaten to kill them unless parents or relatives paid ransom money. Thousands of young men were killed in fake encounters and “disappeared.” In Taran Taran District alone more than 22,000 young men were disappeared. This came to light because the police were carrying out mass cremations of unidentified bodies. Like the British colonialists, officers of the army and police were given medals for butchering innocent people.

The Punjab Human Rights Organization, headed by Justice Ajit Singh Bains, heroically fought state terrorism and documented thousands of cases of fake encounters and “disappearances” in Punjab and filed cases in lower courts and the Supreme Court of India. In the “disappearance” of 22,000 youth in Taran Taran, the Supreme Court said that they will give compensation but the families wanted justice. That case is pending in the court since 1986. Justice Bains and his colleagues in the Punjab Human Rights Organization pointed out that the attacks on Punjab, especially the Sikhs, are attacks on the Right to Be of all and that all peoples of India and the world must oppose it. Justice Bains travelled across the world explaining the struggle and situation in Punjab to the people. His book Siege of the Sikhs thoroughly analyzed the situation and draws warranted conclusions about the situation in Punjab and India, as well as human rights and human rights legislation, if they are to mean anything at all.

People across the world condemned these attacks in spite of the massive disinformation campaign by the Delhi Durbar blaming the people, not the state, for violence. Justice Bains was arrested, as was his colleague Jaswant Singh Khalra, kidnapped from their homes and “disappeared” by the Delhi government. A successful national and international campaign was conducted for his freedom.

The genocide in Punjab by the Indian ruling elite has not been able to break the fighting spirit and unity of the people of Punjab. They have continued their fight against land theft and the loot of resources by the Delhi Durbar on behalf of the corporates, such as Adani, Ambani, Tata, Birla and others. The Farmers’ Morcha in 2020 once again showed the determination and resilience of the people of Punjab to continue to fight against the loot and plunder by the Delhi Durbar.

Punjabis have a long history of fighting against tyranny. In the middle of the 18th century when, due to invasions by marauders and the oppressive policies of the Delhi rulers, the population of Punjab was reduced to less than half, Punjabis led by the Misls [sovereign confederacies] not only defeated them, but defended people and gave rise to the independent state of Punjab under Ranjit Singh. Under his Raj, there was no unemployment, no indebtedness, no hunger, almost 100 per cent literacy, including women.

Since the colonization of Punjab by the British in 1846, Punjabis have been fighting for the affirmation of their rights. The British carried out genocide and ecocide by clearing millions of acres of land, destroying the irrigation system and causing famine and mercilessly killing people. Punjabis made countless sacrifices for the overthrow of British colonialism. But with the transfer of power in 1947, as in the case of all the peoples of India, their aspirations and rights have not been affirmed. Therefore Punjabis, like all the toilers, nations, nationalities, tribals and oppressed people of India, continue to fight for a life of dignity and justice. They are fighting for Pani, Kisani and Jawani, which are under attack by the corporates. The phrase, which translates loosely as water, agriculture, youth, highlights the interconnected struggle to protect natural resources, farming livelihoods, and the future of the younger generation. The farmers and people of Punjab are marking the 42nd anniversary of Operation Blue Star based on a sober assessment of the past and a road map for the present and future to renew and renovate all relations between humans and humans and humans and nature for affirmation of the rights of all.

Note

1. “Delhi Durbar” literally translates as the “Court of Delhi.” Under the British Raj three “Delhi Durbar” were held in 1877, 1903 and 1911 as lavish public ceremonies in Delhi marking the accession of a new British monarch to the title Empress or Emperor of India. In contemporary commentary it is used to refer to centralized autocratic decision making and the New Delhi elites.

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