'Khalistan Zindabad’ cries return to haunt Golden Temple on Operation Blue Star anniversary

Pro-Khalistan slogans were heard at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Thursday as Sikh activists marked the 41st anniversary of Operation Blue Star and the death of militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Videos shared by ANI showed supporters chanting "Khalistan zindabad" when Shiromani Akali Dal (Mann faction) leader Simranjit Singh Mann arrived at the shrine.

According to News18 report, former Akal Takht Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode downplayed the sloganeering, stating, "These slogans have always been raised here and across the world. There is nothing new in this." He criticised the 1984 military operation, saying, "The government to this day doesn’t have the answer to why such a holy place of Sikhs was attacked. Sikhs were demanding their rights. They had not announced an attack against the Indian government. Then, without any notice or warning, we were attacked as enemy countries are attacked."

Launched between 1-10 June 1984, Operation Blue Star was a military offensive ordered by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to flush out Bhindranwale and armed militants from the Golden Temple complex. The Khalistan-supporting militants had stockpiled weapons inside the shrine, escalating tensions. Bhindranwale, head of the radical Damdami Taksal, was killed during the operation, which remains a deeply polarising event.

The operation’s aftermath saw Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, on October 31, 1984. Decades later, the political legacy persists - Beant Singh’s son, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, won the Faridkot seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as an independent.