P Chidambaram's 'Op Blue Star a mistake' puts Congress in a tight spot; he's right: BJP

JALANDHAR: Former Union home minister P Chidambaram has stirred unease within Congress by calling Operation Blue Star a "mistake" and saying ex-PM Indira Gandhi "paid with her life for it". His remarks mark the first time a senior party functionary outside Punjab has openly condemned the 1984 military operation in the Golden Temple, long a politically fraught subject for the party.

"No disrespect to any military officers here, but that ( Blue Star ) was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. A few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army," he said Saturday at a literary festival in Himachal Pradesh, referring to Operation Black Thunder-2 carried out by National Security Guard(NSG).

He added: "There was a way to retrieve and capture all the militants, but Blue Star was the wrong way, and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for that mistake. But that mistake was a cumulative decision of the Army, police, intelligence and civil service. You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi."

Congress has maintained an ambiguous silence on the operation that triggered Gandhi's assassination and the anti-Sikh riots that followed.

Chidambaram's divergence from party line is not new. Over the years, he has publicly contradicted Congress's positions on issues ranging from economic reforms to internal security, including claiming UPA govt didn't retaliate against Pakistan after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks due to global pressure.

BJP swiftly seized on his latest remarks. Party spokesperson RP Singh posted on X: "As a nationalist, I strongly believe that Operation Blue Star was completely avoidable, as rightly mentioned by ex-home minister P Chidambaram. A more strategic approach, like Operation Black Thunder, could have achieved the objective without desecrating the sanctity of Sri Harmandir Sahib or causing loss of innocent lives."

PM Narendra Modi, during his reply to the no-confidence motion in Parliament in Aug 2023, had referred to Operation Blue Star as "an attack on Akal Takht ".

Within Congress, few functionaries have ever publicly questioned the operation. Over a year ago, Punjab Congress MP and ex-CM Charanjit Singh Channi termed the Army action an "attack" on Darbar Sahib and said it was "wrong". No central neta endorsed or contradicted him. Congress has never formally apologised for the operation.