1984
Margaret Thatcher Colluded with Indira Gandhi to Help Plan & Carry Out 1984 Assault & Massacre in Golden Temple
PETER WALKER, et al
Newly released documents show that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher colluded with Indira Gandhi by sending in Britain’s Special Air Service (“SAS”) in planning and carrying out the June 1984 attack on the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar and the massacre of thousands of innocent civilian men, women and children.
[The SAS is a regiment of the British Army, constituting part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF).]
Moreover, this particular attack was carried out in conjunction with a simultaneous army and police assault on approximately 40 other major historical gurdwaras across India.
Britain’s Labour MP Tom Watson, who represents the West Bromwich constituency, has demanded the Foreign Office release further papers about the British role.
Details come in two letters (the first dated February 6, 1984) recovered from among a large cache of government documents released in the new year under the 30-year rule and published in the media.
[This confirms that the planning was thus initiated at least FOUR MONTHS before the attack ... which belies all of the Indian government's claims that they had no option, and that the action was precipitated by sudden turn of events. There is other evidence that has surfaced pointing to Indian military exercises around a huge model of the Golden Temple as part of preparation for an assault on the shrine complex, several months even earlier!]
One letter, dated 23 February 1984, is from Brian Fall, private secretary to the then-foreign secretary, Geoffrey Howe, to Hugh Taylor, his counterpart under the home secretary of the time, Leon Brittan.
It warns about "the possibility of repercussions among the Sikh community in this country" over a possible military operation to remove from the Golden Temple Sikh activists who had been cornered into it through months of military pre-assault manoeuvres.
India had sought British assistance over a plan to remove the activists from the temple complex, Fall writes, adding: "The foreign secretary decided to respond favourably to the Indian request and, with the prime minister's agreement, an SAD 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."
[“SAD” a division in the United States Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) National Clandestine Service (NCS) is responsible for covert operations known as "special activities". Within SAD there are two separate groups, SAD/SOG for tactical paramilitary operations and SAD/PAG for covert political action.]
The reference to SAD is still not fully explained, though there are some suggestions -- which remain unsubstantiated -- that it may be a typographical error for SAS.
The elite unit is referred to later in the letter, where Fall writes that the military raid could increase tensions among Britain's Indian community, "particularly if the knowledge of the SAS involvement were to become public".
He adds: "We have impressed upon the Indians the need for security; and knowledge of the SAS officer's visit and of his plan has been tightly held both in India and in London. The foreign secretary would be grateful if the contents of this letter could be strictly limited to those who need to consider the possible domestic implications."
The issue is an explosive one for Sikhs worldwide.
In June 1984, the military operation took place over six days, with India's government saying around 400 people had been killed. However, Sikh groups put the death toll in the thousands, including many Sikh pilgrims. In October that year, two Sikh bodyguards to Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, assassinated her, sparking anti-Sikh pogroms that killed more than 3,000 people in India‘s capital alone. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were also massacred all over the country.
The other letter released is from Robin Butler, Thatcher's private secretary. On 6 February 1984 he wrote to Fall saying Thatcher was "content" for Howe to allow India to receive help, and that Britain expected to be warned if India looked likely to go ahead with a raid.
Watson told the BBC Asian Network the letters raised "huge questions about the role of the British government at the time". He said: "On behalf of my constituents I was also deeply upset and offended that we were involved in what turned out to be a raid that caused huge loss of life and political tensions ever since."
He said the other letters should be released: "I think Sikh-Britons and all people concerned about human rights will want to know exactly the extent of Britain's collusion with this period and this episode, and will expect some answers from the foreign secretary."
Three other letters in this chain (between Thatcher’s private secretary Robin Butler and his counterpart at the Foreign Office) have been weeded out of the file and remain classified. The file stops in March 1984, and the next part of the folio is still unavailable, obscuring more details about the months leading up to the raid.
However, in a crucial letter, the Foreign Secretary’s Principal Private Secretary, Brian Fall, explains to his opposite number at the Home Office, Hugh Taylor, how a raid on the Temple might:
“increase tension in the Indian community here, particularly if knowledge of the SAS involvement were to become public. We have impressed upon the Indians the need for security; and knowledge of the SAS officer’s visit and of his plan has been tightly held both in India and in London. The Foreign Secretary would be grateful if the contents of this letter could be strictly limited to those who need to consider the possible domestic implications”.
Only four copies of the letter (stamped ‘Top Secret and Personal’) were made, and circulated to principal private secretaries at Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence, to keep the operation under wraps. Despite these precautions, SAS involvement was rumoured in a Sunday Times article written by Anne Mary Weaver shortly after the raid in June 1984.
This new evidence provides conclusive proof that British Special Forces were involved with planning a raid on the Temple. It also starkly reveals the risks involved with Thatcher’s covert foreign policy for events in India and Britain. The majority of letters in the file relate to Thatcher’s involvement in negotiating British arms sales to India.
UK Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday: "These events led to a tragic loss of life and we understand the very legitimate concerns that these papers will raise. The Prime Minister has asked the cabinet secretary to look into this case urgently and establish the facts. The PM and the foreign secretary were unaware of these papers prior to publication. Any requests today for advice from foreign governments are always evaluated carefully with full ministerial oversight and appropriate legal advice."
Jagdeesh Singh, of the 1984 Genocide Coalition argues: “These documents now confirm the depth of this murderous collusion. June 1984 resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, disappearances and wider devastation. It was 9-11 many, many times over. It was India’s war on the Sikh nation. The above documents amount to explosive evidence of British government participation in this mammoth crime against humanity, and confirmation of what we suspected all along.”
Jagdeesh Singh added: “2014 is the 30th anniversary of the horrific 1984 genocide, during which 100,000 Sikhs were killed by the Indian state, as part of a two-pronged and two-phased genocidal onslaught in Punjab and Delhi on the Sikh population. The Indian government launched a direct, vicious war on Punjab in June 1984. 250,000 troops invaded and occupied Punjab. Over 1-6 June 1984, they bombarded the Sikh national shrine of the Golden Temple in Amritsar with tanks and helicopter gunships. 8,000 Sikh men, women and children were viciously killed, their bodies stripped of clothing and belongings and then they were cremated en masse. The entirety of Punjab was closed off from the world and turned into a mammoth concentration camp as Indian soldiers went through its entire 50,000 plus villages – arresting, torturing, killing and raping.”
[Courtesy: The Guardian and the Stop Deportations blog. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 14, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: Onkar Singh (Chandigarh, Punjab), January 14, 2014, 7:42 AM.
Once a slave, always a slave! Hindu India has proved the adage by remaining beholden to the colonial West despite being handed 'independence' on a platter. There is no evil act that has occurred anywhere in the world in the last four centuries which doesn't have its roots in the vested interests of the Eurocentric countries and its New World. They've never had a dearth of coolies to do their dirty work, and they've never had a more pliant and submissive bunch than the Hindus of India. This latest revelation comes as NO surprise to me. Weren't the Brits desperately trying to sell arms to the Indians in the 1980s -- including an aircraft carrier? No wonder they were eager and willing to assist and endorse any evil design by the Injuns, as long as they could get trade in return. So much for the moral superiority of the West ... not that any one takes the outlandish idea seriously any more!
2: Gian Singh (London, United Kingdom), January 14, 2014, 8:33 AM.
Now we have clear evidence that, a) the West knew exactly what mischief India was up to, and even lent a hand; and, b) the West sold its soul in return for trade contracts and concessions, and paid back by remaining silent over the massacres and excesses vis-a-vis Sikhs and Punjab. What they did in the Middle East in the early decades of the 20th century haunts the world today. What the world did ... and did not do ... vis-a-vis 1984, will haunt it for decades to come. Wait till Modi and his marauders take over and the real rape and pillage begins. You ain't seen nothing yet! Don't the Hindu texts themselves warn the world about Kaliyug -- the Dark Age? We need to stick to the high and dry "noah's ark" of Sikhi principles, values and practices so that we can stay afloat and survive the storm.
3: Kulwant Singh (U.S.A.), January 14, 2014, 9:03 AM.
The one thing corporations fear is being labeled human rights violators. What are nations, if not glorified corporations? Even the U.S. has played a role in the destruction of Punjab, by introducing pesticides and genetically engineered crops after WWII. Sikhs have made great strides in the past 30 years, in securing a voice on the international stage. We are no longer a "tribal minority" that can be used and discarded at the whims of greater powers. We should continue to make strides and use this age of media and technology to make our voices heard. History will show who were the tyrants and who were the freedom fighters. That will last for eternity.
4: GC Singh (USA), January 14, 2014, 9:20 AM.
These documents nail the BIG LIE that India and its surrogate communal media had fostered in the entire world that Operation Blue Star was intended to flush out the so called "extremists" from the Golden Temple who had ostensibly threatened to declare "Khalistan". These documents conclusively prove now that the operation was planned long before June 1984 and was premeditated to conduct a large-scale massacre and subsequent genocide of tens of thousands of Sikhs so that Indira Gandhi could play the Sikh card and win the next election on the strength of the lemming-like Hindu vote and keep dynastic rule within her family. The cunning Indira Gandhi also co-opted the British and the Soviets in planning the attack as a shield for possible international diplomatic fallout from her actions and to suppress the Sikh reaction in the diaspora by her Goebbelian propaganda of defaming Sikhs as extremists and terrorists. The western countries who outwardly profess the values of human rights and freedom are in many cases too willing to sell their souls in exchange for trade and short-sighted economic interests.
5: Lara Kaur (Paris, France), January 14, 2014, 10:02 AM.
Interesting. While planning the whole operation as early as 1983, the Indians had zeroed in on the first few days of June for the attack. Why those specific days? They weren't selected at random. They are amongst the busiest days at the Golden Temple, when hundreds of thousands would be attending to commemorate the Shaheedi Gurpurab of Guru Arjan. Despite the commotion, tens of thousands were around that fateful June when the army assault with tanks and heavy artillery began ... you guessed right! ... on the exact day of the high holiday of the Gurpurab! Yes, thousands of pilgrims were within the complex. And were killed. With the Brits also behind the earlier Amritsar Massacre (Jallianwala) a mere 65 years earlier, the former massacre now looks like a mere picnic, doesn't it?
6: Kevin Hillier (Manchester, United Kingdom), January 14, 2014, 10:19 AM.
Well ... one died a dog's death, put down like a pariah dog cornered in an Indian gully; the other rotted away in a long-drawn, slow death ... alone, unloved, despised, and senile. Didn't someone say ... "Life is a bitch, then you die." Well, here, we had two! Good riddance of bad rubbish, if you ask me ...
7: Hari Singh (London, United Kingdom), January 14, 2014, 1:48 PM.
Modern-day politics seems to spit forth the worst amongst us as our leaders -- that's how the system of democracy works, unfortunately ... even though it's the best of all our bad options. Sadly, when it comes to the female of the species in politics, the same rule holds true. Pity.
8: Rup Singh (Canada), January 14, 2014, 1:59 PM.
It's very interesting that the West (so-called civilized world) speaks constantly about human rights violations and inequality around the world, yet they somehow always have a hand in almost every atrocity committed against humanity. If only we Sikhs listened to Guru Gobind Singh and followed his teachings, we could defend ourselves against all boors, both Indian and of every other ilk,
9: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), January 14, 2014, 3:06 PM.
The Wicked Witch of the West meets the Wicked Witch of the East.
10: H. Kaur (Canada), January 14, 2014, 7:26 PM.
What I find interesting is if you google the topic you will find dozens and dozens and dozens of Indian websites giving their anti-Sikh perspectives. A good strategy to make sure their message gets out. We Sikhs don't have one, of course. Isn't it interesting how they say the Operation was to flush out Sikh separatists? Particularly because there was no separatist movement prior to operation BlueStar. I still remember news sources from 1984 saying Mrs. Gandhi felt she had to attack because Sikh farmers were threatening a collective strike that could cause famine in India. Now the BBC, Al Jazeera and goodness knows how many other non-Indian media use the same terms as the Indian media? I love how, on YouTube, you hear General Brar and this other general who helped in the operation describe the events. It makes one laugh. I think the Indians will try their best to make the British not reveal things. They seem to be really annoyed at the turn of events.
11: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), January 14, 2014, 7:27 PM.
Sikhs around the world need to keep cool and calm and wait. This breaking news has hit all the papers and channels in the United Kingdom, and it is very powerful news indeed! As suspected it was 'blood for votes' because Margaret Thatcher had 'manufactured' a 'war' herself in the Falkland Islands and won the election and Indira Gandhi needed to get back into power at any cost! And they were friends. Sikhs should keep calm and wait for developments, especially after our Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron has ordered an investigation into these allegations. He also visited the Darbar Sahib which was attacked in 1984, only last year!
12: Ari Singh (Sofia, Bulgaria), January 14, 2014, 9:43 PM.
The West did the same to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. The British betrayed the Sikhs at Jallianwalla Bagh, again in Canada and then in 1947. Even though Sikhs fought for the British Empire for a century with hundreds of thousands of lives sacrificed. The Sikhs even defended the subcontinent ever since the Gurus created the community. Although outnumbered, they defeated the Mughals, the Turks and their cousins, the Afghans. We are a minority and will always be out-numbered! But we will always prevail for we represent Good! We must not build enmity with the West or with our brothers in India and Pakistan as these events are caused by politicians and not by the general public. Now, these papers in London have proved beyonf all doubt of the planning of a Sikh Genocide. We should demand compensation for the victims. Shouldn't this case go to the International Court in The Hague against the parties concerned for collusion to mass murder?
13: Tinku (Punjab), January 14, 2014, 9:57 PM.
As a community we have to really think hard and get this fact in our mind that nobody is our savior. We keep on saying we did this for Hindus, we did that for Britain or France or the western world, and expect they will reciprocate in our time of need. No, it will not happen. From now on, we need to look after protecting our own interests. First, save yourself. Also we need to get our occupied land back in order to save the future of our community.
14: Dr Birinder Singh Ahluwalia (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), January 14, 2014, 11:09 PM.
Only last month, sikhchic.com emblazoned poignant words in a headline while referring to Nelson Mandela. They ring even louder and clearer today, as I pore over this latest revelation on the outrages of 1984: "Here was a Man! When comes such another?" This article reminds us glaringly of the cross humanity continually bears as we humans continue to be plagued by bad leaders who are bent on taking us to hell in a handbasket ... in a hurry. Over and over and over again, we are reminded of how much damage to society our evil leaders do ... and today's news is another sad example of it. On the one hand, we are blessed with the likes of Mandela and Obama, who -- no matter what their faults and failings -- make the world a better place. On the other hand, we have these two sirens who have done nothing but rain war and pestilence on us ...
15: N Singh (Canada), January 14, 2014, 11:47 PM.
The Sikhs actively participated in, and saved the British during two World Wars, and this is how they repay us! This is a hard pill to swallow because I have always been proud to be British. This is a slap in the face. I think it's time to take off our blinkers. Here is British history towards the Sikhs: a) The Sikh Empire is usurped in 1849, and Maharaja Duleep Singh, while still a child, is taken to England and virtually kept there a prisoner. b) The entire ignominious history of the Raj, exemplified by the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Amritsar. c) Execution of countless Shaheeds including Bhagat Singh and Kartar Singh Sarabha. d) Attempt to undermine Sikhi and control the gurdwaras. e) The tragic saga of the Komagata Maru. f) Partition of Punjab in 1947. And now ... g) 1984! What have they ever done for us other than use and betray us? If we are something today, it is only because of our Sikh spirit, hard-work and the Guru's grace. What about Canada? There is no doubt in my mind that CSIS (Canadian Secret Service) was either fully aware of or actually involved in the Air India bombing ... along with India. At a minimum they helped cover up the black ops done by India's RAW operatives. What about the US? Didn't they ban the turban in their army only after 1984? Don't the Wikileak files prove they also knew the truth about 1984? Do we really have any friends? How do we get 'friends'? Let me ask you how have the Israelis done it? Ask yourself that question.
16: N Singh (Canada), January 14, 2014, 11:53 PM.
@Tinku #13. Correct. If we are to survive, we need to, a) put Sikhs first. 'Sarbat da Bhalla' is great and must be honoured but we will get nowhere if we don't give special and unique consideration to our own. We need to help, serve and protect our own and only then can we help others. Message: Put Sikhs first. b) Yes, it's time to work on a long-term strategy for our homeland otherwise we will always be outsiders. We do not have the economic power to command the help or respect and influence we need to protect ourselves. The only way forward is to have our own country. Period.
17: Ajay Singh (USA), January 15, 2014, 8:11 AM.
This just keeps getting sicker and the bottom keeps falling as time passes by. Time is not the great healer, not in this case where the crimes were himalayan. While Bluestar was in planning for a while, what seemed to precipitate the assault on the Golden Temple was news of the killing of 6 Hindus in Dhilwan by those appearing to be followers of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale in late May. They were dragged out of a bus and executed. It wasn't until long after that it came out that the murders were staged by Indian intelligence operatives in order to create a justification for the Golden Temple attack. Actual evidence was found: fake beards and turbans in a nearby, abandoned vehicle were connected with the crime, but no one did any follow up. We should pause and think about what was involved in this act. Just to gauge the pure evil involved. The other fact, that Bhindrawale and his followers were 'terrorists' and that Bluestar was needed to restore the sanctity of the Darbar Sahib, this is pure nonsense. None of the Sikhs in Darbar Sahib were charged with anything, there were no warrants, the fact they were living there is of no concern to the Government of India. Every single one of them was innocent; but they were all killed. Not terrorists, militants, extremists, or anything, just plain innocent. Does this not make Bluestar an illegal action? Finally, we keep talking about having our own country. It has taken me a while but I think separation is a mistake, it keeps us from claiming what we already have. We have a country, we need to make it our own. Stop running away from it, claim it and make it our own. Muslims got a country and it is a failed state now. Maybe Khalistan will be different from Pakistan but my money is that it will be exactly like Pakistan. Make India Khalistan. The idea is ballsy, but then we are the only ones on the subcontinent who have balls.
18: G Singh (New Delhi, India), January 15, 2014, 9:02 AM.
Trading the lives of the innocent for a few dollars (pounds). Harkens to the day of the British Raj, as nothing has changed. And to say that the western world or England are civilized? Not so. Trade blackie lives for selling arms -- that is the mantra of the western 'white' world.
19: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), January 15, 2014, 9:11 AM.
The idea of asking for our sovereign Sikh State to be returned with all its boundaries drawn up by Ranjit Singh's cartographers and stolen by the British in 1849, is a better option than any other because 1947 was only yesterday for so many Sikh families across the planet who have been directly affected by a handful of British and Indian idiotic egomaniacs who caused the greatest human disaster in modern history with millions of deaths through violence and trauma!
20: Ari Singh (Sofia, Bulgaria), January 15, 2014, 11:23 AM.
Khalistan will be another Pakistan. What we need now is to follow the teachings of Guru Gobind Singh ji and be prepared anywhere and anytime. Without our Gurus' teachings we will be just ordinary folks.
21: N Singh (Canada), January 15, 2014, 11:51 AM.
@Ari #20: I suggest your approach is idealistic and narrow. Historically, the Jews have already done this. They have rightfully and correctly followed their teachings (and to be honest, their teachings are not too different from ours). Look what has happened to them. The killing of Jews did not actually stop until there was an Israel. Take some time and read their history, read the persecution, read the Holocaust, read what happened to those Jews who stayed in Germany believing in the goodness of human nature. We don't have to follow the Pakistani model. We can, we will do better. At the very least, we'll be far better -- and better off -- than the clowns that constitute desi India.
22: Kulwant Singh (U.S.A.), January 15, 2014, 12:14 PM.
The Arab population in Israel is growing faster than the Jewish population. Eventually, Israel will have to choose between being a Jewish state or a democracy. It can't be both. If we are to look towards the Jews, then there is one lesson we can take away: The dire need to increase our numbers.
23: Ravinder Singh (Mumbai, India), January 16, 2014, 2:06 AM.
The teachings for the Sikhs are laid down in the Guru Granth Sahib. The simple teaching being -- One Father and we all humans are his children. This is precisely the reason Sikhs are spread out throughout all over the world. We sikhs should strive to make the world a place which is governed by the universal and eternal teachings of the Guru Granth Sahib.
24: Satinder Kalsi (Kenya), January 17, 2014, 4:24 AM.
We cannot attempt to relive what our fellow Sikhs went through during the 1984 genocide. However, what we feel about this is a drop in the ocean of what happened. For many Sikh families, generations were wiped out. In Delhi, many Sikh families had to cut their hair and their children's and pretend not to be Sikhs so they could be spared. What have Sikhs done to deserve this? Just because our beliefs and thoughts are above others and we try and lead the best life possible, free from being anyone's slaves except Akal Purakh's? The British involvement gave India the ticket to go ahead with the massacre, not caring for the consequences. Who are Sikhs anyway to them? Forgetting how the Sikhs played a disproportionately large role, given their numbers, as part of the British Empire forces in the Two World Wars. They went on to have a major impact in terms of campaigns fought, medals and commendations won and the widespread respect and reputation they gained as chivalrous soldiers. Although accounting for just 2% of the population of British India at the time, the Sikhs made up more than 20% of the British Indian Army at the outbreak of hostilities. By the end of the World War I, around 130,000 Sikhs had seen active service. They fought on most of the war's major fronts, from the Somme to Gallipoli, and across Africa and the Middle East. Sikhs fought alongside their British and Indian counterparts to serve the greater good. May Akal Purakh ji keep His Hand on our Sikh quom to get us answers about the 1984 genocide. We must all continue to question what happened, but hope that the perpetrators learn from it and appreciate the sacrifices made by our martyrs, including those of 1984. We must continue on the path of Guru Nanak and continue to spread the word of Naam, equality and not let politicians get another opportunity to take over our lives.