Turmoil in Punjab : An Insider's Account: Before and After Blue Star (An Insider's Account)

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Punjab went through a politically turbulent period between 1978 and 1994. triggered by the rift between Sikhs and Nirankaris, and fuelled by the operations Blue Star, Woodrose and Black Thunder I and II. Narrated as an eyewitness account by Ramesh Inder Singh, then the district magistrate of Amritsar, and later the chief secretary of Punjab, this book affords an insider's view of the events that ignited the strife and created the socio-political fault lines that divided Punjab in those years. It also describes the terrorist violence in Punjab, the state response to the military operations, the death of thousands of innocent citizens, the shocking assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the subsequent lynching of close to 3,000 Sikhs in the national capital of Delhi, which set in motion a devastating ethno-national movement in Punjab.

Based on extensive research and first-hand accounts of those who lived through those volcanic years, Turmoil in Punjab. Before and After Blue Star is an eye-opening narrative of the genesis of the Punjab conflict, the rise of radicalism and the Khalistanis, and the climination of militancy from the state.

Ramesh Inder Singh, popularly known as R.I. Singh, is a distinguished civil servant of the Punjab cadre. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1986, at the age of thirty-six, for his notable contributions in the field of public administration.

He was district magistrate, Amritsar, from 1984 to 1987, and dealt with the turbulence in Punjab from close quarters. The various army operations against militancy, including Operation Blue Star, Operation Woodrose and Operation Black Thunder I, were conducted during this period.

During his long career of forty years in public life, he has held many crucial appointments. He was principal secretary to the chief minister of Punjab for five years; chief secretary of Punjab for over two years; and from that position, he took premature retirement from the IAS in 2009 to serve for five years as chief information commissioner, the transparency watchdog under the Right to Information Act.

Before joining the IAS, he taught political science in a constituent college of Delhi University. He has an MA in Political Science and topped Panjab University, and is a law graduate (LLB) from Delhi University. He has also worked with the World Bank as a consultant. He is currently retired.

EVEN BEST OF TIMES, PERCEPTIONS OF AN EVENT OR A situation vary. Catastrophic events in particular tend to obscure objectivity, divide people and often cause facts to fall by the wayside. Operation Blue Star and its aftermath were cataclysmic events of this nature, making India go to war with itself. The nation lost a Prime Minister, a chief minister, a former army chief, thousands of innocent citizens and some not-so-innocent ones. However, nearly four decades later, we still hear varying versions of what happened, why and how it happened. Facts are sacred, but whose facts are they? It is one person's truth against another's, your interpretation versus theirs.

In June 1984, the Indian Army marched to Amritsar-Operation Blue Star was under way. Some saw it as an invasion of the sacred space of the Golden Temple, while some others viewed it as a military operation to clear the area of gun-wielding terrorists.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated a few months later. Carnage followed on the streets of Delhi and elsewhere, with over 3,000 innocent Sikhs being murdered. Some believe it was genocide, while others considered it a spontaneous reaction to the murder of their beloved leader. For some, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a shaheed, a martyr, as publicly pronounced by the jathedar of the Akal Takht in 2003. Others, however, viewed him as a zealot responsible for over two decades of Punjab's turmoil, misery and mayhem.

I was an eyewitness, and at times an actor, howsoever insignificant, as this moment of history unfolded. What I saw or did-or what I failed to do-needs to be told. My conscience, more than anything else, impels me to tell my facts and my interpretation of the events that transpired over the troubled decade and a half surrounding Operation Blue Star. To leave things unsaid would be to blank out history. Therefore, I feel the need for an objective and factual account of the events and happenings. This is my attempt in the pages of this book.

In Punjab, terrorism has been eliminated decisively. However, the deep, fundamental ethno-socio-religious fault lines that led to the turmoil in the state still persist. History has an uncanny habit of repeating itself, and we have to be on guard, for only the civilizations that draw lessons from their history and move forward prosper.

Being on the rolls of the government, this is the earliest opportunity I received to publish the present work, post my superannuation as chief secretary, Punjab, and thereafter as chief information commissioner, Punjab, under the Right to Information regime. And I do not regret this interregnum because the passage of years has helped crystallize issues and cooled down tempers. In these thirty-eight years, a lot has been said and written about Operation Blue Star and the chaos in Punjab. An abundance of pop history books and documentaries and a few eyewitness accounts-mostly hearsay-have been published. Everything, however, has not been said and probably may not be said for a while, considering the sensitivity of the subject and the security imperatives.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages