Operation Blue Star – And The Controversy Continues

There seems to be no end to the controversy surrounding Operation Blue Star. The British government’s twelve page report tabled in the British Parliament clarifying that its role was purely advisory and limited has unfortunately only stoked the fires in India.

The British Foreign Secretary William Hague tabled a twelve page report before the Parliament stating that the British Government’s role in the 1984 Operation Blue Star (or for an operation which was never carried out) was purely advisory and limited.

Ever since the disclosure of the two letters dated 6^th February 1984 and 23^rd February 1984 (see http://kumar-theloneranger.blogspot.in/2014/01/operation-blue-star-new-controversy.html) there has been considerable speculation in India about the extent of the role of the British Special Air Service (SAS) in the Golden Temple Operation. Debates featuring opposition politicians, former intelligence and army officers on Indian television news channels have gone on unabated as if the Indian government had committed a heinous crime in seeking advice from a specialized counter-terror unit of a foreign country on the feasibility of carrying out a flushing out operation. Are politicians in India so naïve that they consider it preposterous for the government of the day, in its wisdom, to have sought “advisory assistance” from a friendly foreign government in planning a military operation? At least, one leading opposition politician thought so.

Questions relating to this controversy may not have convincing answers, and in any case it may be difficult to find completely satisfactory answers. Also the contemporaneous documents may not reveal the full story, for most of the personae behind Operation Blue Star are no longer alive with the exception of Lt. General K S Brar, who was the General Officer Commanding of 9 Infantry Division. The officer in question has in unequivocal terms stated that there was no foreign involvement in the planning and execution of Operation Blue Star.

The single most important question has been ‘why did the Indian Government seek assistance/advice of the British Military or its intelligence agencies?’  Two Indians who could have definitely given an appropriate and satisfactory response to this question are the late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and her security advisor late Rameshwar Nath Kao. Two factors that may have led the late Mrs. Gandhi to approach the British for assistance, would have been, one, that the bulk of the support for the secessionist Khalistan movement came from the Sikh community in Britain and prominent leaders espousing the cause of Khalistan were based in Britain. Intelligence sharing between foreign countries being normal, Indian and British agencies, one assumes would have kept tabs on the activities of the leaders of the Khalistan movement and two, the SAS has been one of the best counter-terror units in the world. The legendry spy master would also have considered the role played by the SAS in the 1979 operation to flush out radical Muslims who had occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca inspired by the revolution in Iran. Comparisons have been drawn between the siege in the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the occupation of Golden Temple by militants. In the 1979 Mecca siege, personnel belonging to 22^nd SAS Regiment who were working for a British Company at the relevant time in Saudi Arabia were called upon to advice in planning the operation to flush out the armed radicals. Though SAS members did not take part in the actual operation, it is believed that French commandos belonging to the Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmeie Nationale (GIGN) took part in the actual raid along with Saudi anti-terror units.

The second question for which no document may provide an easy answer is what happened to the advice given by the British official/s? According to Manoj Joshi, a leading commentator on strategic affairs, the SAS was probably involved in an operation planned much prior to Operation Blue Star which was never carried out.

This operation was planned using the commandos of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), who are army personnel, seconded to the Research & Analysis Wing. Manoj Joshi says that the stories doing the round in the late eighties was that the SFF was ordered to develop a plan for taking out Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple in late 1983. The force came up with a plan where its personnel would disguise themselves as Sikhs, penetrate Bhindranwale's durbar at the Guru Nanak Niwas in the Golden Temple complex and whisk him away. 

At the last stage, the commander of the force was summoned by Mrs. Gandhi and asked to brief her on the plan. Her main question was: What are the chances that people will be killed in the operation? The commander said that there was no guarantee that there would be no casualties and as many as a dozen or more people could be killed. At that Mrs. Gandhi balked.

However, Colonel Mahendra Pratap Choudhary, then Commanding Officer of the SFF Group which was a part of Operation Blue Star, said they had no contact with any foreign Special Forces outfit, including SAS. “The only foreign connection to our conduct were the specially designed Kevlar-plated bullet-proof helmets from Israel which were got on the eve of the Operation.”

Was Operation Blue Star based on the advice given by the SAS official/s? "The UK officer’s report back to the UK authorities stated that the main difference between the original Indian plan and his advice was that the original plan was based on obtaining a foothold within the south complex and fighting through in orthodox paramilitary style."

"With a view to reducing casualties, the UK military adviser recommended assaulting all objectives simultaneously, thereby assuring surprise and momentum. The advice given to the Indian authorities identified sufficient helicopters, and the capability to insert troops by helicopter, as critical requirements for this approach."

"The UK advice also focused on command and control arrangements, and night-time co-ordination of paramilitary with Indian Special Group forces."

"It is, of course, possible that Indian planning went through several iterations after the UK military adviser’s visit and report. A quick analysis by current UK military staff confirms that there were significant differences between the actual June operation, and the advice from the UK military officer in February. In particular, the element of surprise was not at the heart of the operation. Nor was simultaneous helicopter insertion of assault forces to dominate critical areas."

The paper on the operation made public by the Indian authorities on June 13, 1984 makes clear that it was a ground assault, preceded by a warning, without a helicopter-borne element, which became a step-by-step clearance supported by armour and light artillery.

According to the British report, “A key UK officer recalls being told in July 1984, by one of the Indian Intelligence Co-ordinator’s senior officials, that after the February visit it had emerged that the Indian Special Group and Army did not have the helicopter capabilities for a simultaneous assault.” 

Lastly there has been a hue and cry about the visit of either intelligence and/or military officials (who also probably did a recce of the Golden Temple Complex) and whether India’s national security was compromised. Much prior to the disclosure made by the British, the late B. Raman on page 96 of his autobiographical account “The Kaoboys of R&AW Down Memory Lane” published in 2007 states: “I was given to understand that at the request of Kao, two officers of the British Security Service (MI-5) visited the Golden Temple as tourists and gave a similar advice to Indira Gandhi – be patient and avoid action or use the police.”  Whether these officials were part of MI-5 or were in reality members of the SAS will never be known. But the fact remains that the British played an advisory role pre-Blue Star.

Operation Blue Star – A New Controversy, Three Decades Later

A needless controversy is being raised about Operation Blue Star because of declassification of letters by Britain.

1984 was a tumultuous period in the history of modern India, and in particular Punjab and Operation Blue Star launched in the first week of June 1984 was the darkest chapter of that phase. Reams have been written by historians and experts on the volatile politics and the Khalistani militancy. However, the occurrences of the eighties and the aftermath of Operation Blue Star cannot be undone or erased from memory.

Today, nearly thirty years after Operation Blue Star, a new controversy has inflamed passions with the release of two letters in the United Kingdom which were hitherto classified. 

The letters were released in January 2014 as one of 500 documents from the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister’s office lodged in the National Archive thirty years after their original publication. 

One of the letters written by the Foreign Secretary’s Principal Private Secretary Brian Fall to his opposite number in the Home Office, dated 6^th February 1984 refers to an "Indian request for advice on plans for the removal of dissident Sikhs from the Golden Temple". It states that the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is "content that the foreign secretary should proceed as he proposes". 

The other letter, dated 23^rd February 1984, said an SAS officer visited India and drew up a plan which was then approved by Mrs. Gandhi. 

The letter dated 23^rd February 1984, titled ‘Sikh Community’, noted “The Home Secretary will have seen press reports of communal violence in the Punjab. The Foreign Secretary wishes him to be made aware of some background which could increase the possibility of repercussions among the Sikh communities in this country”.

 

The ‘background’ in question was the covert role of an elite British military adviser in India.

“The Indian authorities recently sought British advice over a plan to remove Sikh extremists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Foreign Secretary decided to respond favourably to the Indian request and, with the Prime Minister’s agreement, an SAD [sic] officer has visited India and drawn up a plan which has been approved by Mrs Gandhi. The Foreign Secretary believes that the Indian Government may put the plan into operation shortly”.

The official position of the Indian government has been that the operation to flush out militants was a measure of last resort and hastily planned in the last week of May 1984. It is believed that there was no military or police action contemplated in February of 1984.  A close aide of Mrs. Gandhi at that time denied any British involvement in the military operation. There is a needless hullabaloo over the release of the two letters. Questions have been raised about the authenticity of the letters and politicians especially belonging to the opposition have called for an inquiry into the matter.

Firstly, the hue and cry over this issue is uncalled for. This is because intelligence sharing and discussions between representatives of intelligence agencies of friendly states is not uncommon. It needs to be pointed out that prominent Khalistani activists like Jagjit Singh Chauhan were based in Britain and it was normal for Indian security agencies to be in touch with their British counterparts. 

Secondly, the entire operation was planned and executed by the Indian Army personnel. True, there has been speculation about the nature of British involvement, if any, in the light of the recent revelation. Today, it can only be inferred that, the British SAS having expertise in flushing out operations of this type, was consulted about the viability of a military operation. (This view is supported by Praveen Swami’s article in the Hindu and a portion of which is reproduced below). It is also essential to remember that India did not have Special Forces like the SAS or GSG-9 and had to depend on the Army’s Para Commandos and personnel from the infantry units to execute this operation. The National Security Guards (NSG) was established in 1984 after Operation Blue Star.

Thirdly, if there was any involvement of foreign SF personnel, the extent and nature of the involvement can be confirmed only by the principal planners of the operation, namely, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Rameshwar Nath Kao, the top brass of the Indian Army – Generals Vaidya, Sundarji and R S Dayal. None of these personae are alive today. Mr. Girish Chandra (Gary) Saxena who was the chief of R&AW at the relevant time refused to comment on the controversy. Further, it must be emphasized that considering the equation shared by the then Prime Minister with Kao, it is highly unlikely that any third person may have been privy to the one-to-one meetings between Mrs. Gandhi and Kao. Kao was the first chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and Special Adviser to Mrs. Gandhi on security.

According to an article written by Praveen Swami in The Hindu, former chief of the R&AW Girish Saxena initiated a series of meetings with the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, in the build-up to Operation Blue Star. 

The intelligence-sharing meetings, the sources said, were authorised by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and included at least one visit by a mid-ranking officer of the élite Special Air Service commando unit to frame an assault plan which would minimise civilian casualties. The SAS plan, the sources said, was rejected because Mr. Saxena was unconvinced it would work. Prime Minister Gandhi eventually handed charge of the operation to the Indian Army.

“The only plans we had were drawn up on the fly,” said Brigadier Israr Rahim Khan, who led the attack under the command of Lieutenant-General Kuldip Singh Brar. “Major Jasbir Singh Raina, one of my officers, infiltrated the temple dressed as a pilgrim, scouting out hardened defences inside the temple on June 2, just one day before operations to clear the complex began.”