Op Blue Star was the wrong way… Indira Gandhi paid with her life for the mistake: Chidambaram

Former Union Minister P Chidambaram Saturday said that Operation Blue Star — the June 1984 Army action at the Golden Temple in Amritsar to evict militants – was “the wrong way” and that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi “paid with her life for that mistake”.

The former Home and Finance Minister made the comments while moderating a discussion on ‘They Will Shoot You, Madam’, a book by journalist Harinder Baweja, at the Khushwant Singh Literature Festival in Himachal Pradesh’s Kasauli.

Chidambaram was responding to a statement by Baweja that Indira Gandhi paid with her life for her decision on Operation Blue Star.

“No disrespect to any military officers here but that 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… Blue Star was the wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake,” said Chidambaram. He, though, added that the operation 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 asked Baweja.