Intriguing questions rekindled 38 years after Operation Blue Star (Book Review)

New Delhi, July 13 Did the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi bypass the chain of command and force the Indian Army's hand into launching the "ill conceived, poorly planned, terribly executed" Operation Blue Star by compelling an ambitious army commander to pull "the carpet out from under the feet" of the army chief?

Would the course of history have been different if the heavily-armed militants holed up inside the Golden Temple had been asked to surrender as this "could have delegitimised them in the public eye" had they failed to do so?

Why were the instructions issued in 1982 by an army commander on the "procedure for conducting such an operation" if necessary, that included its videotaping and inviting two prominent but non-political Sikhs to witness the operation, ignored?

These are some of the intriguing questions that have been rekindled by a new thoroughly-researched book, 'Turmoil In Punjab - Before And After Blue Star - An Insider's Story'

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