1984
A Probe Into British Involvement in One of The Darkest Episodes in Indian History
NICHOLAS WATT, JASON BURKE & JASON DEANS
British PM David Cameron has asked the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to conduct an urgent investigation into a decision by the government of Margaret Thatcher to send an SAS officer to Delhi in 1984 to advise the Indian government on the latter's plans to attack the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Amid calls from Sikh groups for an inquiry into the alleged British involvement in planning and implementing the operation which resulted in the massacre of thousands of innocent men, women and children, Downing Street said the investigation would examine two issues: the British action in 1984 and the decision to release such sensitive government papers.
Heywood will want to examine why the papers were not marked sensitive and held back when papers from 1984 were released under the annual 30-year rule.
The Prime Minister intervened after the recent, explosive release of papers from 1984, which showed that the then foreign secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, responded "favourably" to a request from Delhi for help in drawing up plans to launch a military operation to remove resistance fighters from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest site in the Sikh faith.
The Indian government said around 400 people were killed when the Indian prime minister, Indira Gandhi, sent troops into the temple in June 1984 in the six-day Operation Blue Star. Independent sources, however, put the death toll in the thousands, mostly innocent pilgrim bystanders.
The revelation of British involvement prompted an intense debate in India.
The general who led the assault on the temple, Lieutenant General KS Brar, said that the allegation the British government secretly helped the late Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi to plan the mission was "fictitious" and that "all the plans [for Operation Blue Star] were laid and executed by Indian military commanders".
Brar told the Guardian: "There was no question of getting help from the British government and no suggestion or mention at any stage of a British officer who had come and advised. It was a last-minute operation because the prime minister was negotiating with the Sikh leaders to arrive at an amicable solution. As a last resort, she ordered the operation."
A leading member of the opposition BJP party, which is favourite to win this year's Indian general election, pointed out that the documents directly contradicted Brar's statement since they raised questions about claims by Indira Gandhi's government that it only decided to launch the operation to storm after talks with Sikh politicians broke down in May 1984.
The British documents show that India sought UK advice in February 1984 and that Britain was confident a military operation would be launched.
Arun Jaitley, the BJP leader in the upper house of the Indian parliament, blogged: "Contrary to what we have been told that it was the collapse of the dialogue in May 1984 that led to the 'Operation Blue Star', the government of India was in dialogue with the British government on the plan to remove the dissident Sikhs from the holy Golden Temple ...If [the] British government was being consulted in February 1984, it only lends credence to the fact that government of India neither believed in nipping the problem at the initial stage nor in exploring alternative methods of evacuating the extremists from the Golden Temple. It wanted to invade the sacred precincts of the Golden Temple no matter even if it hurt the national interest and certainly the interests of the Sikhs."
Cameron's spokesman said Heywood would conduct his inquiry as quickly as possible. "The cabinet secretary has been asked by the Prime Minister to look into what may have happened in 1984 with regard to papers that have been recently released. The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to lead an investigation on that subject. The important thing is to establish all the facts as quickly as possible. That work is under way."
The spokesman added: "The reason behind it [the investigation] is that issues have been raised around the decisions both to release papers and also to consider the facts contained within the papers. So there are two aspects to it."
Cameron reached out to Sikhs when he visited the Golden Temple last year and the nearby Jallianwala Bagh, where he wrote of the "deeply shameful" Amritsar massacre of 1919, when at least 379 innocent Sikhs and other Punjabis died after British troops opened fire on a peaceful public meeting.
News of British involvement in India's crimes against its Sikh citizenry is likely to inflict severe damage on the government's relations with the Sikh-Briton community.
Paul Singh Uppal, Britain's only Sikh MP who accompanied Cameron on his trip to the Golden Temple and who spoke to officials in No 10 on Monday night, praised the Prime Minister for acting quickly. Paul Singh, the Conservative MP for Wolverhampton South West, said: "It is important that we address what went on, what advice was given and whether this differed from the final strategy of the Indian government. There is a bit of a gap from February to June.
"Sikh-Britons want to get to the nub of exactly what went on. These documents coming to light have resurrected a lot of those old wounds. For me personally it brought back a lot of those memories as a 16 year old watching those scenes unfold on television with my family. This is a very sensitive issue for many Sikhs. It was a seminal moment."
The head of the Sikh Council UK, Gurmel Singh, said he was "shocked and disappointed" at the idea that the government of Margaret Thatcher may have been involved. The Labour MP Tom Watson, whose West Bromwich constituency is home to many Sikhs, has demanded that the Foreign Office release further papers about any British role.
[Courtesy: The Guardian. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 15, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: G Singh (United Kingdom), January 15, 2014, 5:56 PM.
I was called from No.10 today at work with the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff wanting to know where the Sunday Times article came from which first alerted us to this story. It is dated 10th June 1984 and I first read it back in 84. I had sent it to a colleague of PM Cameron. It was on this basis (and other articles) that I searched the National Archives over Christmas and found nothing and was ready to do a Freedom of Information Request. Just by magic the documents were released in early January under the 30-year rule and brought forth by Jagdeesh Singh / Tom Watson.
2: N Singh (Canada), January 15, 2014, 11:10 PM.
@G Singh: So more documents should be released later this year? The 30-year mark will come up again in June and Nov 2014 also. It will be interesting to know what these documents will say, or do you think they will mysteriously 'disappear'? The primary concern being voiced by the Brit politicos this week is not over whether or not any wrong had been done, but on how and why they had slipped up and allowed the documents to go public!
3: Harmander Singh (London, England), January 17, 2014, 5:43 AM.
The investigation will find that the SAS advised a more cautious approach (similar to the action taken a few years later - siege/blockade, etc.) but the Indians chose to ignore it - this will allow both the UK and the Indians to take 'credit' for their actions at the time and carry on with normal relations. The second aspect will introduce an additional scrutiny stage of papers before release in future. The 30 year rule will not affect June and November but apply in January 2015 by which time this episode will be dead and buried - in time for the May 2015 General Election in the UK. My message to the UK Sikhs of 13 January 2014, sent at 22:50 reads: Dear [various], Going on the assumption that Thatcher, Howe, Hurd, Brittan and Major DID collude with that country during 1984, I propose that Sikhs embark on a public awareness raising campaign that has a rounded media strategy as its cornerstone and incorporate the 11 points I submitted earlier, namely: 1) Not surprised but extremely saddened/dismayed. 2) Need for Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TARC) as called for by numerous Sikhs. 3) Lifting of Proscribed status of Sikh organisations. 4) Immediate granting of Asylum to all Sikhs who have applied for it since 1980's. 5) Recognise 1984 pogrom as Genocide. 6) Release the withheld papers for sake of transparency. 7) Reconsider the 'begging for business' foreign policy thrust with countries that have an appalling Human Rights record. 8) Deny access/visas to those who were considered involved in the 1984 and subsequent attacks on Sikhs in that country. 9) Agree to 1984 Memorial initiative in the UK. 10) Ensure that teaching of the contribution of Sikhism is included in the History/Religious education curriculum. 11) Review of length of sentences given to those involved in the Brar incident.
4: N Singh (Canada), January 17, 2014, 7:04 PM.
@ Harmander Singh: These are excellent suggestions! If we could get these implemented, it would be a giant step forward for the UK Sikhs as well as setting a precedent worldwide. I wish there were more thinkers like yourself and if only our people would listen and implement. We have too many generals and not enough foot soldiers, that is our problem.