Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday at an event said that Operation Blue Star, the Indian military’s operation to flush out Sikh separatists from inside of the Golden
Temple in Amritsar, was “the wrong way” to secure the temple.
He said that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who greenlit the operation, “paid the price of that mistake with her life” and said she should not be blamed for it because it was a “cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil service”.
“You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi. Would you?” he questioned during a panel discussion at an event.
Operation Blue Star was a military operation carried out by the Indian Army in June 1984 to remove Khalistani armed separatists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab.
The operation lasted from June 1 to June 8, 1984 and was a complex military operation that led to significant casualties among soldiers and civilians even though the violent separatists were eliminated.
It also had far-reaching consequences as eventually led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984, which triggered widespread anti-Sikh riots across India.
VIDEO | Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P Chidambaram says, "No disrespect to any military officers here but that (Blue Star) was a wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. Few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the… pic.twitter.com/Aa9uCBLmOy
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 12, 2025
“No disrespect to any military officers here but that (Blue Star) was a wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. Few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army,” the former finance and home minister said.
Shortly after, the Indian government carried out Operation Woodrose across rural Punjab, aimed at detaining militants who had fled the Golden Temple. The operation targeted suspected insurgents from rural Punjab.
“Blue Star was the wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake,” he said.
