OPERATION BLUE STAR

OPERATION BLUE STAR

Subject : Internal Security

Context : Pressing for a speedy resolution of the farmers’ agitation, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh invoked the state’s troubled past to remind an all-party meeting that prolonged negotiations that time too over a list of demands led to Operation Blue Star in 1984.

Concept :

Operation Blue Star:

• It is a code name given to an Indian Military Operation to remove the separatists who were hidden inside the Golden Temple at Amritsar on 5th June 1984.
• The operation was ordered by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, primarily to take control of the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar (popularly known as the Golden Temple).
• The Indian military entered into the premises of the temple to drive out the Sikh extremist religious leader, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers.
• The operation had two components to it, Operation Metal which was the invasion on the temple complex and Operation Shop which was confined to the countryside of the state.
• This Operation helped in eliminating Khalistani terrorism.

Background:

• Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale wanted the Indian government to pass the Anandpur Resolution, and thereby agree to the formation of a separate state of Khalistan for Sikhs.
• Since 1982, this radical leader of Sikhism had managed to gain enough support for his cause and by mid-1983 had set up a base inside the Golden Temple complex, with ammunition and his followers.