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| Spooky similarity between Indira Gandhi and Cruela De Vil from 101 Dalmatians |
With her "Cruella DeVil" hairstyle, Indira Gandhi reminds me of the comic vamp from Disney movie 101 Dalmatians who hunted for dalmatian puppies for her fur coat.
History will cast Indira Gandhi as a manipulative, divisive, and a cruel dictator who had blood of thousands of innocent Indian citizens on her hand.
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| Indira Gandhi as Goddess Durga |
Indira manipulated the Punjab situation with an eye on the forthcoming 1984 general election in India. In the past her strategy had been to divide the Hindu votes on castes and win elections on minority support. But the rise of Hindu right wing and success of BJP's movement to liberate the birth place of Hindu God Rama under the "Ram Janambhoomi" program had shaken her calculations. She saw Hindus united under one banner. She schemed a different strategy for the next elections. Her strategy was clear - paint minority Sikhs as "extremists", "separatists", and "terrorists". Then portray herself as the Hindu goddess "Durga" who saves majority Hindus from these bad guys. For her, the minority Sikhs were expendable commodity. The government machinery was deployed to execute this scheme. The Indian media was under government control and foreign media was barred from entering Punjab as it was declared as "Troubled State".
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| Sant Bhinderanwale at Dharam Yudh Morcha |
Sikhs fell prey to her scheming designs as their responses were very predictable. Their demands for justice on issues such as river water redistribution, electricity sharing, promised capital for Punjab state, Sikh marriage act, and declaring Amritsar as holy city were presented as demand to separate from India. Support from Sikh diaspora in Canada, UK, and USA was portrayed as foreign "hand" in Indian affairs. Traditional Sikh symbols were used to paint Sikhs as terrorists. Indian public lapped up the lies fed to them by Indira and media. The honest, hardworking, and patriotic Sikh community were successfully labelled as the bad guys.
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| Destroyed Akal Takht after Operation Blue Star |
Indira Gandhi had pre-calculated the reaction of Sikh community. She knew that Sikhs will not tolerate an attack on Golden Temple and their reaction would be predictable. So she planned a military operations on Golden Temple on the historic martyrdom anniversary of the founder of the temple - Guru Arjan Dev ji. The five day military operation left thousands dead and damaged historical and sacred buildings in the temple complex. Innocent pilgrims were killed along with the armed militants. Sikh leadership were either killed or put in jails.
Her visit to the Golden Temple rubbed salt on the wound. She had miscalculated Sikh sentiments. She knew her days were numbered and went on to make speeches like, "... every drop of my blood will fall for the country." The wound of the Sikhs was not healed. Instead "Operation Woodrose" was designed to kill Sikh youths in Punjab rural areas. Young men of ages 15-35 were picked up and killed in fake encounters by Punjab Police and Central Reserve Police Force. The community was under immense pressure and then Indira added insult to the injury by calling in "Sarbat Khalsa" a gathering of all Sikhs to reconstruct damaged building of Akal Takht under government control. This move further alienated the Sikhs.
Five months later, on October 31st, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Her assassination echoed the sentiments of many Sikhs who needed a response to "Blue Star Operation". The Sikhs felt that justice was done and some even celebrated. The reaction was swift from the ruling Congress party. Its leadership feared defeat in the forthcoming elections and took their frustration out on innocent Sikhs living in stated ruled by Congress party. Armed gangs were organized by local Congress politicians and Sikh families were targeted across the country.
So, Is Indira a heroine or a monster? This blood-thirsty monster was not only responsible for the killings of thousands in her lifetime, she was also responsible for planning the killing of thousands of Sikhs in 1984 as part of "revenge pogroms" by her party men. The Delhi Police either joined in the violence against the Sikhs or turned a blind eye to the violence.
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| Scenes of Sikh Genocide in Indian capital Delhi in 1984 |
For many Indians, Indira Gandhi will remain a monster figure and history will portray her as a "genocidal maniac". The politicians who disregard the value of human life for their political manipulations, eventually pay for their inhumane actions. Indira was responsible for the killings of thousands of Indian citizen during her lifetime and thousands more after her death in 1984. She truly was the "Cruela de Vil" of India.
Looks like a one-sided biased narrative of an ignorant guy who has not read history or is probably a selective listener. Mrs. Gandhi had asked for peaceful negotiations/surrender many times before taking this route. She saved Punjab from becoming Kashmir, but she did get late, it should have happened much earlier and in a more wise manner. Yes she was a politician, a shrewd one, but she did have the best interests of this country at heart. FYI, she had strictly given orders to her army that there should be no shooting on Akal Takht, that Golden Temple was not to be touched. However, as soon as the army got inside, terrorist Bhinderanwale and his extremist cronies started shooting and left the army with no choice. Read about Captain Jasbir Singh Rana, how he lost both his legs, was later awarded Ashok Chakra. Read about the last moment call of General Sundarji to Mrs. Gandhi, she was dragged in Blue Star by him. The decision was forced on her. How can you call that guy a sant? Your precious so-called sant Bhindranwale killed Avtar Singh Atwal, a devout sikh openly critical of Khalistan, on the steps of Golden Temple, mind you. The radical Akalis were killing both moderate Sikhs and Hindus, they had to be put down. Blame Mrs. Gandhi of playing communal politics at other times, but not of blowing up Golden Temple on purpose, she was very fond of Sikhs. She is not a monster, a great politician perhaps, but a flawed one. Why I called her great? Because she was the women who saved countless East Pakistanis from the brutality of Yahya Khan. She put an end to a genocide in 71. Her greatest flaw was that she was a mother who should have placed her nation's interest first instead of being misled by her wild son, Sanjay. You may choose to hate her, but I choose to forgive her for being a selfish mom. She did great things for India, and she took some very poor decisions, because she was a human being, not Durga, and certainly not a monster.
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