Key Pointsg
KPS Gill described Operation Blue Star as a hasty decision and said Indira Gandhi underestimated its impact on the Sikh community.
Gill argued that the problem had been exaggerated and believed the military deployment at the Golden Temple was excessive.
Despite criticizing the political decision behind the operation, Gill defended the Army officers who carried it out, saying they were only following government orders.
PUNJAB’S ‘SUPERCOP’ KANWAR PAL SINGH, also known as KPS Gill, is a controversial figure within the history of the state. Gill, who served as Director General of Police (DGP) from 1988–1990 and then from 1991–1995, is hailed for curbing down the violent Khalistan movement that took roots in the state. At the same time, his tenure as DGP is linked with rampant human rights violations and certain controversial policing methods
Gill’s name has once again come into public focus following the release of Satluj, the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. The film has revived discussions about Punjab’s militancy period, the disappearance of Khalra, and the role of the police during the state’s counter-insurgency operations.
One of the most significant aspects of KPS Gill’s views on Punjab’s militancy period was his open disagreement with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi over Operation Blue Star. In his biography and public statements, Gill criticized the operation as hasty and blamed Gandhi for underestimating its deep impact on the Sikh community.
In 1984, the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi sought to flush out the Sikh separatists militants who had taken refuge inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest site for Sikhs. Gandhi ordered the launch of Operation Blue Star, wherein Indian armed soldiers used heavy weaponry to neutralize the armed militants. During the operation, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, leader of the Damdami Taksal who was leading the militias, was killed.
Operation Blue star resulted in igniting much anger within the Sikh community and sparked the decade-long insurgency in Punjab. After Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in late 1984, anti-Sikh sentiments reached a peak. Riots broke out, and Sikh youths were picked up, detained, and killed by police in a massive scale of extrajudicial killings.
See also: Was Jaswant Singh Khalra Flirting with the Khalistani Movement? Old Video Reignites the Debate
In his biography titled “KPS Gill: The Paramount Cop,” Gill divulged into the controversial Operation Blue Star, and remarked that he disagreed with the then prime minister about this operation. In his book, Gill termed the 1984 operation as ‘hasty’ and blamed Indira Gandhi for not understating its impact on the Sikh community.
Sharing an anecdote, Gill remarked that a month prior to Operation Blue Star, Gill had sent his officials to the Golden Temple in May 1984. There, he observed the ‘shocking misuse’ of military resources by PM Gandhi, claiming that such a huge army that was deployed by her at the site was ‘not necessary at all.’
Gill, as quoted by his biographer in the book, remarked that Gandhi had overestimated the scale of the problem and had made a ‘mountain whereas it was only a hill.’ He commented that Operation Blue Star was conducted in a hasty manner, and PM Gandhi totally disregarded the potential impact it would have on the minds and heart of the Sikh community.
“Advisors of Mrs Gandhi were not guiding her properly and the problem at hand, they told her, was a mountain whereas it was only a small hill. The operation was conducted by her in a hasty manner and without thinking what impact it would have on the hearts and minds of Sikhs,” Gill said.
Defending then Army chief General Arun Shridhar Vaidya and Lieutenant General Kuldip Singh Brar, the two army officials who were instrumental in conducting the operation, Gill remarked that they were only following official orders and did the best they could do under the circumstances they were forced under.
"In the situation they [Vaidya and Brar] had been forced into, what they did was only the correct thing. Both Vaidya and Brar were only following the orders of the PM,” Gill stated to Times of India.
Gill further stated that the Pakistan-based Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was funding the Khalistan movement. “I regret to say that despite bringing this problem before then PM Narasimha Rao in 1991, I was not allowed to go and convince Khalistanis,” he remarked.
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
Suggested reading:
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube and WhatsApp
Download our app on Play Store