Lt.General Brar on Operation Blue Star

[Apollyon]

Bhindranwale never explicitly demanded Khalistan, and yes he was assisted by the genius Shabeg Singh.

excerpts from the interview :

Chandimandir, near Chandigarh, used to be the II Corps headquarters those days.

..... I give you 36 hours to settle down there and make your plans and I shall come there for my first briefing. The temple has to be cleared at the earliest. Time is at a premium. Khalistan could be declared any day. Bhindranwale is at the peak of his popularity. He has got the entire countryside in Punjab as his followers:shocked:. He's a guy who has almost been able to be accepted as a prophet."

You don't make sense. You fully support the operation and condemn the effects of it ?
And contrast this operation with the one sob mentioned. Operation BS's effects will be felt for the foreseeable future.

I fully support Indra Gandhi (GoI) for what they did to get rid of these Terrorists but rather condemn the civilian casualties. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (PBUH) was responsible for the Civilian deaths not the Indian Army or Indra Gandhi. But i think your Punjab Government want to glorify this Terrorist and his goons by building a memorial inside the Golden Temple and undermine the sacrifice of our brave Army men and Civilians who laid their lives for this country.
Memorial for sikh extremists under construction inside Golden Temple complex – Global Sikh News

Without the support of the Congress, they wouldn't have access to weapons nor ability to takeover a shrine nor the ability to murder people openly.

Congress is Evil

 

[Tronic]

Tronic, in this interview he has two main points

1. there was no real intelligence available as the civilian administration had become defunct after the murder of the DSP, in the whereabouts of the Golden Temple and

sob, that is actually common knowledge. Ask any senior Punjab Police officer at that time and they will tell you why Bhinderenwale's men were running the show. It was because the central government allowed them to. Punjab Police kept begging for permission to arrest Bhinderenwale, but all such requests were turned down. The one time they did arrest him, the central government had him released in a fortnight, and even went so far to openly defend and praise him in the Indian parliament!! Indians have been made to forget this part of history, and one sided biased history is presented showing him solely to be a 'Sikh' creation. Bhinderenwale was a hated figure by the actual Sikh extremists who led the Khalistan insurgency, the Babbar Khalsa. BKI had no support prior to Op Bluestar, but after the army attacked the Golden Temple, they benefited greatly as it was killing two birds with one stone. The Indian army killed Babbar Khalsa's rival, Bhinderenwala, and at the same time, drove all the Sikh youth to join the separatists against the Indian army.

2. The media should not have been packed of from the area. It would have reported on the excess of the army and also quashed the rumor mills.
The header of the news report says the same It was wrong to keep media out of Amritsar during Op Blue Star. Without them, there were rumours and a lot of mutinies'

On the blackout of the media he also comments




On the lack of intelligence

Agreed. And it's the one reason anything the government or army says always has a big question mark to it. Their words are not trusted after they sent the media packing.

 

[Tronic]

You haven't answered the question that I asked. Was it not an insult to the Sikhs when Bhindranwale was defiling Golden Temple ?

I feel he has answered the question. Bhinderenwala was a government stooge. To kill a thousand innocent people to take out their own stooge is not done. The Sikh Akalis led by Tohra tried to reason with him to take the fight outside the temple. He refused. The government is still culpable because he was their creation. No matter what way you look at it, from his creation, to his end; the government is culpable at every step of the way.

A lot of people justify Indira Gandhi's assassination, but in the same vein why do people lionize Bhindranwale ? both were the same..

They did not lionize him. This is a recent phenomena. Why? Because of this:

India Reaches Agreement With Sikhs : Gandhi Regime Yields to All Major Demands in Move to End Strife - Los Angeles Times
Gandhi Agrees To 3 Major Sikh Demands - Chicago Tribune

The constant promises by the Indian government, followed by constant backtracking and dishonouring these accords after promising them.

Rajiv Gandhi agreed to those accords in 1985, and the Sikh insurgency went relatively dormant between 1985-1987, after he promised those changes. 2 years later, when the Akalis got voted back to power, he dismissed the Akali government, re-imposed martial law, and broke his own word and promises. This only reinvigorated the insurgency. Not a single political demand has been fulfilled to this day. If Bhinderenwala is lionized today, it is not because they love him, it is because they are wary of the Indian government and see him as someone who stood up to them.

 

[Tronic]

And the date was somewhere around the first week of June.......not the last week of May or the second week of June..... how precise Genius!

What was the government doing in Jan,Feb,March,April,May :shocked: or was the government trying to be humorous...Bhindrwala says on TV "We declare (the army shoots him) and then an advertisement pops up "Amul The Taste of India"

lol.. Exactly.

 

[sob]

sob, that is actually common knowledge. Ask any senior Punjab Police officer at that time and they will tell you why Bhinderenwale's men were running the show. It was because the central government allowed them to. Punjab Police kept begging for permission to arrest Bhinderenwale, but all such requests were turned down. The one time they did arrest him, the central government had him released in a fortnight, and even went so far to openly defend and praise him in the Indian parliament!! Indians have been made to forget this part of history, and one sided biased history is presented showing him solely to be a 'Sikh' creation. Bhinderenwale was a hated figure by the actual Sikh extremists who led the Khalistan insurgency, the Babbar Khalsa. BKI had no support prior to Op Bluestar, but after the army attacked the Golden Temple, they benefited greatly as it was killing two birds with one stone. The Indian army killed Babbar Khalsa's rival, Bhinderenwala, and at the same time, drove all the Sikh youth to join the separatists against the Indian army.



Agreed. And it's the one reason anything the government or army says always has a big question mark to it. Their words are not trusted after they sent the media packing.

Completely agree with you. The actions of the Congress till date from the time of Mrs. Gandhi have been dictated not by the interests of the nation but by the electoral interests of the party. We have seen this in Punjab, we have seen this in Kashmir, we have seen this in Sri Lanka. This approach has always cost us very dearly. (Exception would be the 71 war)

But in the context of General Brar he was called in to sort out the mess created by the Government and he did his job with all the constraints.