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Courtyard infront of Akal Takht
was full of the dead bodies of the army Jawans and towards the
two main gates also hundreds of jawans were seen killed and
lying wounded. On both sides of the main gate Ghanta Ghar side
and Libaray side the devout taksal singhs were holding the
morchas who did not allow even a single jawan to proceed
towards the Akal Takht. Just behind Dukh Bhanjani Beri were
morchas on the tall bungas and the basement of langar hall
that also killed hundred of jawans trying to proceed towards
Akal Takht Sahib.
I always remember operation blue star when the month of June
draws near and want to live these most horrifie moments once
again, As I remember the months of April and May 1984 were
very action packed in Shri Darbar Sahib. The die had been cast
to attack golden temple and the necessary preparations were
being made by the Indian Govt. on the one side and the sikhs
particularly the adherents and followers of Sant Jarnail Singh
on the other side, in his world famous article ‘Theopolitical
status of Golden Temple’ Sardar Kapur Singh has written that
the particular place comprising Shri Darbar Sahib complex has
got special theophenic influence that affects the pilgrims (sikhs)
inparticular and the other people in General’ It is like the
Jeru Salem syndrome of the semitic religions at Jerusalem.
This is this special historical and spiritual effect that had
prompted thousands of sikhs to fight and sacrifice their lives
to protect the honour and prestige of this highest place of
sikh religion.
Some military generals and other ex officers of the Indian
army had gathered around Sant Jarnail Singh to fight this holy
war. Some intellectuals, philanthropists, business men, big
land lords and sikhs residing out of Panjab in foreign lands
had gathered around him for this most noble, spiritual and
sacred war of the sikhs against the indian state. The reason
for all this accumulation around him was because he touched
the riligiously sensitive chord of the sikhs and laid bare the
injustices and high-handedness being perpetrated by the Indian
state on them. The stage of the confrontation had been set
with the massacre of 13 innocent sikhs by the Nirankaris in
Amritsar on Basakhi 1978. This gang of charlatans were being
helped out and out by the central Govt. to weaken and profane
sikhism. Also the victory of India over Pakistan resulting in
its disintegration had gone to the head of its Prime Minister
who was hailed by the Hindu fascists as their ‘Durga’ i.e.
manifestation of energy of the indian state. The prime
minister in order to subdue sikhs who were challenging her
might now and then wanted to weaken them by weakening and
subduing the Akal Takht. This was advised to her by her
Brahmanical set of advisers. How could this be achieved? Only
if the tallest leader or hero of the sikhs surrenders to her
might at the Akal Takht. Which is embodiment of spiritual and
temporal might of the sikhs.
But the man she targeted for surrender at the Akal Takht was
not made of weak heart and mind. He was moulded in true sikh
spirit in real sense of the term. He saw martyrdom at the
holiest of the holy place for the sikhs the highest reward he
could get on this earth. He had prepared his followers on
these lines, That they were prepared to shed their last drop
of blood for the protection of Akal Takht and Shri Darbar
Sahib Complex, General Subeg Singh had proved an assett to him
in organizing and establishing defence for the complex, Bhai
Amrik Singh proved him an asset in the form that he attracted
a body of the Sikh Youth around him under the banner of AISSF
and inspired them to lay down their lives for the protection
of their glorious heritage. Harminder Singh Sandhu served as
an intelligent chap who could understand and interpret the
ethos of the sentiments of Sant Ji and convey it to the
visiting foreign dignitaries and vise-versa. I being eye
witness to the whole scene till 6th of June 1984 at the Akal
Takht can say that the scheme of defending the attack of the
army in the form of ‘Morchas’ was well designed.
Indian Govt.’s Army was shrewd enough to judge the strength of
nerve of the General of this body of Sikh holy militants Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindran wale by pounding the Akal Takht and its
adjoining morchas and the tallest Bungas for two days
foolishly. They did not stop pounding cannon balls and rocket
launchers even for half an hour for two days i.e. 4th and 5th
of June till the evening. They saw no sign of scare in the
minds of either of the sikh holy militants or their general.
They had been ordered to subdue the greatness of Akal Takht
and its values from the minds of Sikhs by making those present
at the Akal Takht to surrender and show the authority of the
Delhi Govt. over it, that it was subordinate to it.
Khalse from the day of its inception i.e. 1699 has been known
as having their own state with in the state of India. The
Central authority of the state of the sikhs with in the state
of india being Akal Takht. Brahmanical mind of the indian
govt. wanted to finish this centre of authority once for all.
They had not forgotten the challenge of Buddhism to their
might who had demolished the Brahmanical caste sy stem pyramid
and established its supremacy over it for a along time. They
were once again seeing the seeds of the same defiance to their
thinking in the preaching of the sikhs Gurus and subsequent
relentless fight of the sikhs with the Mughal rulers on the
one side and the Brahmanical thinking on the other. Now
because the levers of power were held strongly in their (brahmanical)
hands so they wanted to finish the defiance of the sikhs that
the Brahmins faced perpetually. The whole of Panjab was handed
over to military on 1st of June and curfew was imposed through
out Panjab. Indian Military was every where in Panjab running
around with their war mechanism in full show. Police and other
security forces were divested of their powers. What happens in
war between the two sovereign countries was being witnessed to
the full scale in punjab. As if the forces of panjab were once
again fighting a war with an alien power after 130 years which
they had fought with the English rulers in india on the banks
of satluj. Now the venue was Darbar Sahib. Indian army was not
headed by the British Generals. But by their own country
generals.
After much waiting for surrender uselessly the indian army
entered the Golden temple main gates from three sides. First
from the main gate known as Ghanta Ghar gate, the second gate
being just opposite to the other side of Darbar Sahib known as
reference library gate and third being the sarai gate which
joins all sarais and the Teja Singh Samundri Hall and Manji
Sahib Diwan hall, the fourth side being the side of Gurdwara
baba atal, but on this side the pressure of army was not so
heavy. The morcha on this side was handled by the militants of
Babbar Khalsa who managed to escape before the army could
capture the whole complex. One or two morchas on Ram Dass
Sarai and Guru Nanak niwas also could not provide satisfactory
defence against the army and the one morcha on the water tank
was demolished when a cannon ball hit the water tank on 5th
June and water gushed out of it making the men holding on to
the morcha to abandon it. This was held by AISSF boys. Army
had to face much resistance from the morchas on the langar
building, in its basement as well as on the two tall old
Bungas.
The Morchas inside the Parikarma of the Darbar Sahib were a
stiff resistance to the indian army, that was trying to enter
through main gates instead of coming through narrowlanes
surrounding Darbar Sahib complex at that time. On the
instructions of gen. Subeg Singh Sikh militants gave grazing
fire to the jawans entering the parikarma and burst hand
grenades that had high quality to damage the advance of the
indian army. Army Jawans were like sitting ducks for the over
enthusiastic sikh militants who were tired of waiting for the
entry of the army and wanted to teach them a befitting lesson.
Cry of the wounded Indian jawans was heard loudly whereas
hundreds of them died with the bullets and hand grenades of
the militants. Till midnight no progress was made by the army
to capture Akal Takht, They could not even go near it. Inspite
of using poisnous gases and flashes of flight they could not
stop the sikh militants from firing on the advancing indian
army who dropped the idea of capturing Akal Takht when the
advancing jawans showed their inability to do so.
Around 12.30 A.M. the sound of hissing of the advancing tanks
was heard which showed the height of desperation of the indian
army and Govt. tanks were made to enter from the main gate
from the sarai side and one of them was damaged to stand still
infront of the portrait of Baba Deep Singh Shaheed thus
obstructing the way for the others to pass by. From the other
side the tanks did proceed and reached the sacred compound in
front of Akal Takhat Sahib Sikh militants had the advantage of
morchas and the army tried to capture these morchas and also
the Akal Takht but came under heavy fire and had to call in
the tanks. No effort was left by the army to make the Sikh’s
surrender but all in vain.
Even the tanks could not frighten the Sikhs and they went on
firing on them. The army after meeting much losses had with
drawn and job of taking over of the Akal Takht was left to the
battle tanks. The militants in the morchas majority of them
had already made up their minds to fight till the finish, but
a handful of them were also thinking interms that they should
some how save their lives. Among this class were the AISSF
boys on the sarai sides including Harminder Singh Sandhu and
his supporters. The other important faction who tried to save
their lives were Babber Khalsa group having there H.Q. at Baba
Atal Gurdwara, they easily slipped on the night of 5th of June
to the safer places. Kanwar Singh Dhami of the Akal federation
having his H.Q. at Guru Nanak Niwas also slipped away. The
occupants of the morchas around the Golden Tempe also tried to
escape and most of them escaped on the early morning of 6th of
June or the night of 5th June. The one ‘s who did not think of
leaving their morchas were the singh’s from Damdami Taksal,
some from AISSF and a group of dedicated Sikhs who had arrived
from Takhat Hazoor Sahib sent by a baba of Kar seva who had
their morcha over the langar building and in its basement,
they fought till last. The Army entering from two main gates
i.e. Ghanta Ghar and reference library suffered much
resistance whereas as on the sarai side it was an easy walk
for it. The resistance from this side was offered only from
the langar hall its basement and Bungas.
No maryada in Darbar Sahib was observed from 4th evening till
the day break of 6th of June rather till 8th of June when the
president of India Giani Jail Singh was to come to visit
Darbar Sahib. Only the sevadars bundled inside the Golden
Temple along with one or two ‘kirtnias’ performed maryada
whatever they could. Indiscriminate firing killed some
sevadars in side the Darbar Sahib and some bullets also of
pierced the holy Guru Garanth Sahib.
The building of Akal Takht was reduced to like an old
abandoned building with its walls and tombs having broken by
the incessant firing of rocket launchers and cannon balls. The
whole of the night of 5th June saw the Akal Takhat being
pounded by heavy artillaryguns and tanks firing on it form all
sides. The devout and holy body of the sikhs defending Akal
Takht and Darbar Sahib showed no signs of depression, rather
they were motivated after seeing the failure of the army to
capture them and reach near Akal Takht.
Courtyard infront of Akal Takht was full of the dead bodies of
the army Jawans and towards the two main gates also hundreds
of jawans were seen killed and lying wounded. On both sides of
the main gate Ghanta Ghar side and Labrary side the devout
taksal singhs were holding the morchas who did not allow even
a single jawan to proceed towards the Akal Takht. Just behind
Dukh Bhanjani Beri were morchas on the tall bungas and the
basement of langar hall that also killed hundred of jawans
trying to proceed towards Akal Takht Sahib.
At around 11 A.M. on 6th June Akal Takht was seen burning and
huge clouds of smoke were seen coming out from it meaning
thereby that either the building of Akal Takht was set on fire
or heavy smoke shells were thrown inside the Akal Takht
Building to suffocate the militants inside the Akal Takht.
Seeing no alternative, the holy general of the sikh body of
militants was either to present him self for martyrdom infront
of the Akal Takht by fighting the enemy or to try to escape
the army cordon some how or get caught by them as a prisoner.
What was the sikh doctrine’s guide and its historical
examples. I being on eye witness can say with authority that
had these three leaders sant Jarnail Singh Bhai Amrik Singh
and Gen. Subeg Singh thought of escaping the drag-net of the
army they could have easily done so because there were no. of
lanes and buildings adjoining the Akal Takht Sahib from all
sides and one could easily sneak into them and made their way
outside marching from one building to the next secretly which
hundreds of insiders did. Sant Jarnail Singh as I already have
said along with the General Subeg Singh were all set to
achieve martyrdom and wanted to repeat the history of Baba
Gurbaksh Singh shahid who had voluntarily advised about 20 or
more sikhs to sacrifice their lives while fighting Ahmed Shah
Abdali’s armies. His logic was that after they offer
themselves for sacrifice at the Akal Takht. They will directly
go to the presence of the master of the Panth Guru Gobind
Singh and tell him the condition of the sikhs being persecuted
by the invading armies on the one hand and the local governors
on the other. Author of Prachin Panth Parkash Rattan Singh
Bhangu elaborates the speech of Baba Gurbakh Singh on the
following lines:
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“Is
there a sikh in the Panth who dares martyrdom and thus raise
voice before the Guru.’’
when Guru Gobind Singh wrote
‘Zafarnama’ an epistle of victory to Aurang Zeb after losing
his four sons, and a no of valuable disciples he wrote to him
that though “you may be thinking, you have deprived me of my
four sons and made me to leave Anadhpur Sahib, but you have
been morally defeated and I have won a agreat moral victory
over your armies,” which the subsequent events showed that
Guru Sahib defeated the forces of evil and injustice. Same was
parallel here Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindra wala a humble servant
of the Guru who kept at bay for three days the huge armies of
the Indian State and against their thinking of surrendering
gave them a befitting reply by defeating these forces morally,
though he had to sacrifice his own life and the lives of his
dearest of dear followers of Damdami Taksal, Sikh students
federation activists, some Sikh youth that had gathered around
him and also a no of innocent pilgrims who had come to Darbar
Sahib for a holy dip at the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev
Sahib.
As a matter of fact the war at the Golden Temple was
reminiscent of the magnitude of an epic war between the forces
of good on the one side and the forces of deceit, craftiness
and wily attitude on the other side. The hero of this war
undoubtedly was Sant Bhindranwale and of the evil forces for
the sikhs was Mrs. Indira Gandhi who was equated with the
status of Devi Durga after she achieved victory over Pakistan
in 1971 by breaking it into two parts by majority community of
India. The sikhs every where on this globe took such a serious
note of this attack that they stood like a rock against this
tyrannical attitude of the Indian Govt. prominent men returned
their honours to the Indian Govt. sikh army personnel revolted
from their barracks and marched towards Amritsar and many
senior 1 AS, IPS and IFS officers resigned from their coveted
posts. Eyes of the sikhs were fixed on one and only one goal
i.e. how to take revenge of the attack from the Indian Govt.
The sikh youth left their houses in desperation went
underground or crossed over to Pakistan to seek help from this
neighouring country. The will to get separated from the Indian
State came infull seeing for the first time in the minds and
hearts of the sikhs every where. The word “khalistan” began
gaining currency with the sikh masses. Though there were no
Hindu-Sikh riots in Panjab as was expected after operation
Blue Star, But a sharp dividing line of polarisation was seen
between the two communities. Maintaining the heritage of
heroism and bravery the sikh youth took to arms to take
revenge from the Indian State. The bards began singing the
heroic songs of performance of Sant Jarnail Singh, Bhai Amrik
Singh and Gen. Subeg Singh during the battle with Indian army.
All got changed in Punjab magnetically after opration Blue
Star.
Among the Indian leaders other than sikhs who condemned attack
on Darbar Sahib was only Chander Sheikhar, who openly
condemned it and he had to pay its price to the Hindu
preponderant majority in india by being defeated in the
ensuing parliamentary elections in Dec. 1984. To some extent
Subramaniam swamy also took the line of chander Sheikhar.
Apart from some judges, human rights activitsts whole of India
sided with Indian Govt. Which resulted in horrific war and
violence between the sikh youth on the one side and the Indian
State on the other. It was neverthe less a political discourse
with, The Indian state in the form of violence which continued
from both sides, but the tangible results are still awaited
with far reaching consequences for India.
Remembering
Operation Blue Star
Twenty Years have passed and with
time has passed the most horrific period in the present
history of the Sikhs. The Akali Ministry in the Punjab passed
a resolution condemning Operation Bluestar but the Indian
Government does not seem to bother about that. As the month of
June comes, the same old scenes in the Darbar Sahib come alive
before my eyes. The AISSF (of which I was convenor of the
Chandigarh unit) was banned in March 1984 and I was asked by
the high command from Amritsar to leave Punjab University,
Chandigarh where I was working as a research fellow, and rush
to Amritsar, It was a call like that of the military high
command for me which I immediately obeyed and joined my
comrades there at Darbar Sahib Complex, with about half a
dozen active members of AISSF from Chandigarh. Charanjit Singh
Talwandi was prominent among those. Time passed very quickly
as the Sikh Panth was witnessing a star on its horizon in the
name of Sant Jarnail Singh Bindrawale, who had emerged as a
symbolic representative of the past Sikh glory and the future
hope of the sikhs at the same time.
As the day of the Army attack on Darbar Sahib drew near, the
atmosphere became more and more surcharged with valour,
heroism and defiance. An Epic battle was going to be fought
between the forces of the ungrateful Indian State on the one
side and of the sincere spiritually symbolic forces of the
Sikh religious values on the other side, latter being
publicised as the “evil forces of terrorism” by the Indian
State through its sponsored media. The readiness for death
with which Sant Jarnail Singh met the forces of the Indian
State and the magnetic influence with which he charged the
whole body of the Sikhs there, nevertheless. made him the hero
of this epic struggle.
I always feel that my providential duty to be there at this
very sensitive and hectic period of the Sikh history was to
project these events as an eyewitness account in writing for
the posterity, a duty in which I have failed so far. Here are
very brief personal experiences that I had all along for three
days, i.e. from 4th to 6th of June while at Darbar Sahib.
I along with Major General Subeg Singh, Prof. Mohinder Singh
Dhaliwal, Gurchran Singh Saidpur, Amarjit Singh Chawla and
Rajinder Singh Mehta spent the whole night of third of June
near Darshni Deori of Darbar Sahib on its right side in
Parikarma. Chawla and Mehta left early in the morning of 4th
of June around 3 A.M. towards Akal Rest House where they were
permanently residing. So four of us remaind there. We had been
waiting for the Army attack throughout night with arms and
ammunition with us, but nothing happened. At 4 A.M. General
Subeg Singh and Prof. Dhaliwal accompanied Palki Sahib to
Darbar Sahib and I along with Gurcharan stayed behind.
The First Rocket launcher was fired by the Indian Army around
4.40 A.M. General Subeg Singh and Prof. Dhaliwal were
returning from Darbar Sahib after listening to daily Hukamnama.
They had approached Darshani Deori when the rocket launcher
hit the Akal Takht building with the loud sound of thundering
of the clouds.
Least bothering about what had happened, General Subeg Singh
approached me as I was feeling scared and trying to run
towards shelter. He took me by the arm and said “come on, Dr.
Sahib, let me show you the battle”. I accompanied him, and
half of the scare seemed to have vanished. He took me towards
the narrow street behind Gurdwara Thara Sahib talking all
along as if he was not worried about what was going to happen.
Both of us sat on the raised sitting stone slates in medieval
style on each side of the door of one of the locked houses and
he told me that he alone could check the movement of the army
from this side of the street, even if it was in thousands. I
asked how? He told that as soon as he sees the army advancing
towards Akal Takht from this street he would hurl a grenade,
that he held in his hand and after that he will fire a few
rounds from his stengun and if one or two jawans were killed
the rest will run back as he knew their psychology. After some
time we moved towards Akal Takht. There were more attacks by
rocket launchers on and around Akal Takht in the mean time. We
stood in front of Akal Takht, General spoke spontaneously :
“The best place to die is the highest place of your religion,
or the place connected with your ancestors and this place
where we are standing is having both the qualities. So this is
the best place to die.” He asked me not to be scared of the
fire as it never hit the man as long as God does not will. He
told me that he had fought so many battles in his life and he
never had a minor bruise in any of the battles.
These were all new experiences for me and also prophetic
words. Then we proceeded towards the main Ghanta ghar gate and
towards Dukh Bhanjani Beri. It was firing all along with
nobody on the Parikarma except us. As we came back in front of
the Akal Takht, one, Devinder Singh Fauji was standing at the
raised platform of Akal Takht and was saying in a loud voice,
“O, Singho, now we are not to eat anything, Guru Gobind Singh
and four Sahibzadas are waiting for us with meals, we are to
fight, get martyrdom and reach there’. It was very hot on 4th
and 5th June and we took charge of the Deori on the left side
of the Akal Takht where two Nishan Sahibs of Miri and Piri
flutter high. Gurcharan along with one or two of his
companions kept them selves busy piercing the walls with
chisel and hammers to make space for fitting the guns, and
also fixed some bricks with mud to hide themselves for safety.
Some unseen force was at work invariably which was prompting
every one to do his bit. On the night of 4th June, we remained
in the room on the right side of first floor of Deori. It was
extremely hot and our clothes got drenched with the sweat, as
there was no electricity; its connections had been cut. We
were waiting every movement for the army but it never came and
we became more and more confident that the army was not going
to enter and they were simpliy trying to threaten the singhs
to surrender. On 5th June, I had an encounter with Bhai Amrik
Singh and Sant Jarnail Singh Bindrawale, The former came to
our morcha which had been shifted from first floor to the
second floor in a room that had a number of windows all
around. Bhai Amrik Singh saw the narrow street below and said,
“This is a suicidal morcha, have you got enough weapons and
ammunition, if not, come with me I shall arrange for it.”
Gucharan went with him and brought more ammunition. Charanjit
Singh Talwandi had come to Akal Takht from the Sarai Side and
had taken charge of the entrance to the basement where Sant
Jarnail Singh had shifted after army’s rocket attack. I
exchanged some views with Sant Ji who had come up from the
basement and was standing with Charanjit. I do not know what
struck Charanjit, he asked me if he could come with us at our
morcha? I told him “yes,” and in no time he was with us
deputing some one else to take his place. He evidently changed
the whole scheme in our morcha.
On the morning of 5th June I saw Sant Jarnail Singh
Bhindrawale surrouneed by some of his warrior comrades. He was
standing in the middle surrounded by others encircling him. He
was distributing double-edged swords to them, I heard him
speak like this:” tell all the Singhs that none is to raise
hands and surrender, all are to achieve martyrdom”. He was
looking remarkably unique among his comrades like an exalted
leader.
As the evening of the 5th of June arrived, we again began to
wait for the army for final assault. In the evening for a few
hours the firing stopped’ otherwise the whole day witnessed
the firing of cannon balls from a long distance. The balls
would hit the long erect old boongas from where only some dust
like material would evaporate doing no considerable harm to
them. That showed their strength. As began the fall of the
night, with it began the final as sault of the army. The
incessant firing by the cannons and rocket launchers started
directed on the Akal Takht. Perhaps the army had abandoned
hope that Sikhs would surrender fearing the sound of cannon
balls and thus it decided to give the final blow. Till
midnight the army men tried hard to reach Akal Takht and
capture it but they were, very time, killed and repulsed by
the valiant and gallant defenders at and round Akal Takht.
Then there was use of poisonous gas , but to no avail.
Eventually, the army had to use its last weapon- to send in
the tanks.
Our morcha was safe as there was no back door entry by the
army as expected by most of us, and we were calm watchers of
the action going around us. It was day-break now, we were
sitting silently in one of the rooms when I, being considered
as incharge of the morcha, caught hold of attention of my two
companions Talwandi and Dhaliwal, and suggested that we should
now leave the place and try to escape, Both of them agreed
with me and all of us placed our weapons along with bags of
ammunition in a big iron container lying along side, and
walked towards the narrow streets by removing a few bricks
near the main back door of the deori to pas through. From
there on, we proceeded to the nearby house by breaking it open
and reached silently near army post outside. It was about 11
a.m. When we saw smoke coming out of the Akal Takht; perhaps
it was done by the army to flush out the men in it and then
shoot them. At this time perhaps some of them came in front of
the Akal Takht and the rest of them escaped from behind it. We
were just caught in a fix as to what to do next when we at 2
P.M. overheard someone say that curfew has been relaxed. We
made up our minds to take the chance if we could escape, We
had changed our clothes and put on the shoes lying in that
house. We got out and mixed with the people going around. We
were checked at one point, but we said that we had come to
Darbar Sahib for Darshan and were stuck here. Dhaliwal showed
his I. card. We were the only Sikhs going in the crowd. Others
had all come to see the military attack and to help the jawans
there. They were returning to their houses. We reached the
house of the sister-in-law of Mr. Dhaliwal in the Dharmpura
Bazar where we stayed till 9th June, as there was no
relaxation in the curfew. We left Mohinder Singh Dhaliwal
here, and both of us went to village Mahal near Guru Nanak Dev
University and from there we reached Jalandhar on 13th
evening. Spending a week or so there we reached Ludhiana and
later reached Delhi. By the end of July reached Calcutta where
we succeeded in reorganising the AISSF upto September. During
all this time Charanjit Singh Talwandi worked hard and proved
an asset for reorgainsing of the Sikh spirit, political as
well as militant. How difficult it was to move from Amritsar
to Calcutta and then to reorganise AISSF in about three months
time was not less than a miracle. I had to work as defacto
president of the Federation during this most difficult period,
and Charanjit Singh Talwandi worked as my close aide and
helped me all through.
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