Operation Blue Star in Punjab campaign, Akali Dal reminds voters of ‘Congress hand’
Punjab polling day coincides with 40th anniversary of operation to flush out militants from Golden Temple, SGPC puts up posters of damaged shrine across state, Sukhbir Badal displays same at rallies
Sukhbir Singh Badal showing picture of damaged Akal Takht Sahib building during an election rally in Faridkot constituency. AT RALLIES held by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal this election, one prominent poster is omnipresent. It displays a photo of the damaged Akal Takht at Golden Temple after Operation Blue Star, with Badal appealing to voters to keep in mind what “the Congress did in 1984” when they cast their ballot on June 1.
Across the state, similar mega-size posters have been put up by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex elected body of the Sikhs which is controlled by the SAD, as the party tries to harden its Panthic politics taking advantage of the fact that June 1 coincides with the 40th anniversary of Operation Blue Star – the controversial Army action to vacate the Sikh holy shrine of militants.
While the Congress is the principal target of the posters as Indira Gandhi led the government at the Centre during Operation Blue Star – which lasted from June 1 to June 6, 1984 – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and SAD may also lose votes in some seats if the narrative takes hold.
The constituencies where the results could be affected are Faridkot, Sangrur and Khadoor Sahib and, to some extent, Bathinda. While the son of Beant Singh, one of the killers of Indira Gandhi over the Golden Temple operation, is a candidate in Faridkot; in Sangrur, radical SAD (A) leader Simranjit Singh Mann is the sitting MP and again on the ballot. Controversial preacher and Khalistan advocate Amritpal Singh, who is jailed under the NSA after an attack on a police station, is one of the candidates from Khadoor Sahib; while Lakha Sidhana, a gangster-turned-activist, is contesting as an Independent from Bathinda.
An SGPC poster in Faridkot city says, “An attack from the then Congress government from June 01 to June 06… Na bhullan yog, na bakhshan yog (Neither worthy of being forgotten, nor forgiveness.)”
Poster installed in Faridkot.
A Scheduled Caste-reserved seat, Faridkot has more than 100 such posters up, said SGPC secretary Partap Singh. “Each district has at least 50 such posters up, if not more.”
The emergence of Operation Blue Star as a poll issue is a departure, as the SGPC has consciously kept the anniversary a low-profile affair in the past in light of the SAD’s three-decade-old alliance with the BJP in state. The SAD top leadership also usually kept away from the annual June 6 event held at the Akal Takht to mark the operation.
This year, apart from posters across the state, the SGPC has put up a model of the damaged Akal Takht building at its entrance, so that it is one of the first things every visitor to the Golden Temple sees. The model was originally kept at the newly inaugurated ‘Shaheedi Gallery’, for “martyrs” of Operation Blue Star, on the Golden Temple premises.
Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar Raghbir Singh and the SGPC have also asked Sikhs to wear black turbans or dupattas from June 4 to June 6 to mark their protest over Operation Blue Star, plus hold photo exhibitions at gurdwaras of the damaged Akal Takht building, and of the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira Gandhi’s assassination on October 31, 1984.
In a statement to the media, Jathedar Raghbir Singh said: “Ceremonies should be held at every Gurdwara Sahib in the country and abroad, and people should be made aware of the history of the June 1984 Ghallughara (massacre).”
SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami also issued a similar statement, calling for ceremonies to remember “atrocities on the community”.
Asked about the focus on Operation Blue Star, SAD spokesperson Maheshinder Singh Grewal said, “It is not a matter of votes. It is a matter of history, and we can’t forget what happened in 1984. Maybe the new generation in their 20s don’t know about it. We need to tell them what happened back then.”
On whether it may alienate Hindu voters, Grewal said: “It is not about Hindu or Sikhs. We can’t forget history over the loss or gain of any vote bank.”
Former Faridkot Congress MLA Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon admitted that the Operation Blue Star campaign could have an impact, but added: “It will hurt the AAP the most, plus the SAD. There may be some, but lesser, impact on the Congress.” The Faridkot seat was won by the Congress in 2019, and the party is seen as having a good shot with its candidate, US-returned Amarjeet Kaur Saho. While the BJP has fielded singer Hans Raj Hans (its sitting MP from North West Delhi), the AAP candidate is comedian Karamjit Singh Anmol.
Pargat Singh, Assistant Professor in Political Science at University College Jaito, which falls in Faridkot, said: “There is a section of the Sikh vote bank that still considers the Congress untouchable due to 1984. For them, the SAD and AAP offered a choice. However, for those motivated by the SGPC posters and the Blue Star anniversary, there is now another choice in Sangrur, Faridkot, Khadoor Sahib and Bathinda seats.”
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