Indira Gandhi, 1980-84: Punjab Turmoil and Operation Blue Star

At a Glance

• Return to power January 1980 (Seventh Lok Sabha)
• Blue Star Army action 5-7 June 1984
• Siachen Operation Meghdoot, April 1984
• Assassination 31 October 1984; Rajiv Gandhi sworn in
• Exam link UPSC Prelims, Modern History: India After Nehru

Where Does It Fit?

This is the fifth topic of the category on India after Nehru. The previous topic covered the Janata Party years. This topic covers Indira Gandhi’s second term from 1980 to 1984, with the Punjab problem. The next topic covers the Rajiv Gandhi years. Previous topic: The Janata Party Years, 1977-80.

How Did the Second Term Begin?

In the 1980 elections to the Seventh Lok Sabha the Congress (I) won a strong majority. Indira Gandhi won from Rae Bareli and from Medak in Andhra Pradesh and kept Medak. She relied more and more on her son Sanjay, who was elected to the Lok Sabha, but in June 1980 Sanjay died in a crash while performing stunts in a plane. Rajiv Gandhi, an airline pilot with no political experience, was reluctantly drawn into politics and was elected from Amethi, and most people saw him as the heir. The end of the Janata government is in The Janata Party Years, 1977-80.

What Were the Economic and Environmental Steps?

The Janata Sixth Plan was curtailed and a new Sixth Five-Year Plan for 1980-85 was launched, aimed at growth, industrialisation, and reduction of poverty and unemployment, efficiency in the use of resources, and economic and technological self-reliance, with a minimum needs programme for the underprivileged. The Integrated Rural Development Programme began on 2 October 1980, and the National Rural Employment Programme in October 1980 became a regular programme from April 1981. The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development was set up in 1982 on the recommendation of the Shivaraman Committee. The Sixth Plan is seen as the first step towards economic liberalisation, followed by Operation Forward in 1982, though too cautious to have much effect, as Indira Gandhi was wary of multinational companies. Six more banks were nationalised in 1980.

The Sixth Plan also gave attention to ecology. Indira Gandhi had spoken at the first UN conference on environment in 1972 and in her earlier term had been behind the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 and Project Tiger in 1973. In her second term the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981 were enacted. The earlier economic policies are in Indira Gandhi, 1966-77: Political Developments and Socio-Economic Policies.

What Happened in Foreign Relations?

The earlier relations with the Soviet Union and Pakistan are in Indo-Pak War of 1971 and the Birth of Bangladesh.

What Unrest Marked the States?

• Naxalites were again active in tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh, and there was a movement for a separate Jharkhand in Bihar, with weaker demands for separate states in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• In Nagaland, Muivah set up the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), aiming at separation.
• In Assam, the All-Assam Students Union led the most serious disturbance, wanting Bengalis out of the state for fear of cultural domination.
• In Andhra Pradesh, N.T. Rama Rao, a popular film star, founded the Telugu Desam in 1982 on the self-respect of Telugu speakers and won the state elections at the end of that year.

What Caused the Punjab Turmoil?

The greatest turmoil was in Punjab, with communal overtones and several strands. There was a strong demand for autonomy; many Sikhs saw themselves in terms of their religion and resented that the Akalis could not rule without central interference; Chandigarh was still shared with Haryana; and there was a dispute over river water. In 1973 the Akalis adopted the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, which on one level only demanded more autonomy, as all states did, but by using the term Sikh nation lent itself to a reading as separation from the Indian Union. The reorganisation of the state in 1966 is in Indira Gandhi, 1966-77: Political Developments and Socio-Economic Policies.

The Akalis opposed the Nirankari Sikhs, whom they called heretics. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a priest and head of the Damdami Taksal, rose to prominence speaking against the Nirankaris, but also spoke against being slaves in independent India and mocked Hindus and modern Sikhs. It has been said that the Congress had encouraged and built him up as a counter to the Akalis, and that he broke free of it. In 1980 the Akalis were dismissed from power and the Congress came to power in the state. In June 1980 a group of students at the Golden Temple declared an independent Sikh republic, Khalistan, with Jagjit Singh Chauhan from London as president. Bhindranwale gained power and was suspected of being behind several assassinations, including of Nirankari leaders, and the government failed to bring him to book. The Akali legislators resigned en masse from the assembly on Republic Day 1983. A team led by Narasimha Rao failed to persuade him to make peace. Khalistani extremists, reportedly encouraged by Pakistan, killed prominent Hindus and Sikh officials; in October 1983 Hindu passengers were shot after a bus was stopped, and the Centre imposed President’s Rule. Bhindranwale moved into the Akal Takht near the Golden Temple, and by early 1984 he and his associates had fortified the complex, with arms and food stocked under the command of Shabeg Singh, once a major general and dismissed from the army.

What Happened in Operation Blue Star?

The operation caused deep disturbance among Sikhs the world over, many left the army and some mutinies by Sikh soldiers were reported, but it ended militancy for the moment and cleared the complex of arms. The assassination of the Prime Minister is seen as a result. On the morning of 31 October 1984, as she walked from her house to her office, she was shot by her Sikh security guards Beant Singh and Satwant Singh. She was taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and did not survive, and the official announcement was made in the evening. Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as Prime Minister by President Zail Singh that evening. The aftermath is in The Rajiv Gandhi Years, 1984-89.

How Is Her Legacy Assessed?

Her legacy is mixed: the economic programmes and spread of education helped middle and lower castes and classes assert themselves, and caste clashes and communal violence grew. She was liberal-minded as a leader but democratic values deteriorated in her time: she began with a trusted Prime Minister’s Secretariat and relied increasingly on her son and a small circle, she weakened the Congress organisation to avoid rival power centres, sycophancy grew, a family member became indispensable to hold the party together, and ideology ceased to be the basis of politics. Her firmness against external aggression showed that India could not be bullied. As an analytical point, the Punjab case shows the cost of using a sectarian leader against a rival party, a point often made, and the use of the army against a place of worship produced a chain from the operation to the assassination to the riots described in the next topic.

Why Is This Topic Important?

• Operation Blue Star Dates and persons are frequent Prelims facts
• Anandpur Sahib Resolution Source of the autonomy debate
• Second-term economy Sixth Plan and early liberalisation

What Came Next?

The next topic covers the Rajiv Gandhi years from 1984 to 1989. Next topic: The Rajiv Gandhi Years, 1984-89.

Key People and Terms

• Operation Blue Star June 1984 army action in the Golden Temple complex
• Anandpur Sahib Resolution Akali autonomy demand of 1973
• Akal Takht Seat of temporal authority of the Sikhs
• Operation Meghdoot Indian action in Siachen, April 1984
• NSCN National Socialist Council of Nagaland
• Telugu Desam N.T. Rama Rao’s party, 1982

Exam Corner

Mains Angle

Questions ask about the Punjab problem and the second term. These points add depth.

• Origins Autonomy, religion and politics
• Action Operation Blue Star
• Consequences Assassination and riots