Why Indira didn't let Rajiv attend two proposed meetings with Bhindranwale

NEW DELHI: The year 1984 is a defining moment in Sikh history but could events have taken a different course? A new book suggests there were windows of opportunity to control militant preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale , but these were squandered because “politics and politicians came in the way of conflict resolution”.

In the months leading up to Operation Blue Star , then PM Indira Gandhi wanted her son Rajiv to secretly meet and negotiate with Bhindranwale. Two meetings were even set up by then Congress MP Amarinder Singh between 1982-84 but they never materialised because Indira was worried that her son’s life might be in danger.

The last-minute cancellation of the meetings infuriated Bhindranwale, who later moved into the Golden Temple in Amritsar, setting the stage for Operation Blue Star, Gandhi’s assassination and the 1984 riots , making the year among the bloodiest in India’s political history.

“I set up the meeting twice. The first time [in 1982], I picked up Rajiv and we drove to the Safdarjung airport where a special aircraft was to fly us to the Ambala Air Force station , where Bhindranwale was already waiting for us. We were recalled before we could reach the airstrip. I had to make up a story and told Bhindranwale that we couldn’t make it because the plane had developed a technical snag,” Singh says in an interview to journalist Harinder Baweja in her book ‘They Will Shoot You, Madam: My Life Through Conflict’.

The book says, “Within a fortnight, Amarinder picked up Rajiv Gandhi again. They were to, once again, go to the Ambala Air Force station where Bhindranwale had already reached. This time, Amarinder was sure they would make it for the meeting. They were airborne, and on their way, but the pilot got a radio message asking him to return.”

According to Singh, the second meeting was aborted because Gandhi had been told by then Punjab CM Darbara Singh that there were plans to ambush Rajiv. He claims Rajiv shared this with him. The book says, “Amarinder also suspects that Darbara Singh, who had favoured Bhindranwale’s arrest, wanted to get back to his bête noire, Zail Singh and that he was the one who told Mrs Gandhi to not let her son walk into the trap.”

Another lost opportunity was in 1981. Bhindranwale was arrested for the murder of Punjab Kesari editor Lala Jagat Narain, but released within weeks after home minister Zail Singh told Parliament there was no evidence against him. “Once free, Bhindranwale went to Delhi to celebrate. He was accompanied by close to a hundred supporters who openly brandished their weapons.

Home Minister Zail Singh made no attempt to rearrest him; nor did Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,” writes Baweja. “The seniormost politicians of the country catapulted Bhindranwale into a hero. The genie was now out of the bottle.”