1984 PUNJAB BURNING

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1947-2008-India-Roundup
“Don’t shed blood but shed hatred,” Indira Gandhi said on air but the army was already preparing for assault. Operation Blue Star was Indira’s medicine to cure Punjab of its militant fever. She had hoped the operation would be smooth, swift and effective. But when on June 5 tanks rolled into the Golden Temple, half the battle—the hearts and minds of the Punjabis—had been lost. The body counts only made it clearer. When Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s body was extricated from the debris of the Akal Takht on June 6, many of his followers refused to believe he was dead. Prophet of hate to some messiah to others, Bhindranwale led the first purge of Hundus from what he considered to be the state of Khalistan.

FIRST CUT

Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma was launched into orbit aboard the Soyuz T-11 on April 2, to become the first Indian in space. He famously said to Indira Gandhi’s question about how India looked from up there, “Saare jahaan se achcha”.

“Terrorism is encouraged most by weakness in political leadership and confusion in the security forces.”

K.P.S. Gill

DGP Punjab on terrorism in the state in 1984

“MARTYRDOM… IS ONLY A BEGINNING”

What does it matter if I die “lying down or standing up”, said Indira Gandhi once. When two of her Sikh bodyguards killed her, it did, for those trapped in the ensuing riots. She had been advised to change her Sikh bodyguards, to which she had replied. “Isn’t Indira secular?”

RAJIV RAJ

Rajiv Gandhi, the heir to the Congress throne, won the year-end elections with a landslide margin. He set a record of winning 401 Lok Sabha seats out of 508.

FIRE IN THE AIR

It took moments for the lethal methyl-isocyanate (mic) gas to leak out of the storage tanks at the Union Carbide factory into the predawn air of Bhopal on December 3, killing 3,000 overnight and 15,000 from related illnesses since then.

ELSEWHERE…

• In one of the largest battles of the Iran-Iraq war, the two armies clashed and inflicted more than 25,000 fatalities on each other. The US accused Iraq of using nerve agent tabun against Iraq.





• The USSR announced its boycott of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.





• American space shuttle astronauts, Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart, went on the first ever untethered space walk.





• Desmond Tutu (below), black Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for racial equality.

Rs 10 crore was the cost of reconstruction of the Golden Temple after it was destroyed in Operation Blue Star. This included the cost of the 40 kg of gold donated by the state and the Central governments.

Courtesy By India Today