CHAPTER 3 (C): Into The COLD-WAR

- by Ritweek Singh
IIT(BHU) Varanasi , India

"सिंहासन खाली करो कि जनता आती है : लो आ गई"

 

 *Sorry for the delay, there were some technical issues integrating the blogs to my website which took a while to fix.

"Singhasan khali karo ki janta aati hai" this slogan was given during JP movement literally translates to "Empty the throne that the public knows". After the 42nd constitutional amendment, most of the objectives of Soviet were met and Indira Gandhi was in a false confidence that she will be back in power, thus general elections were declared. 

JANTA PARTY RULE

Janta party coming to power was a great milestone for our democratic system. It was the first non-congress government to come to power in the centre, a true coalition formed against a tyrannous rule by people from various regions, parties and ideologies. Fear of Indira( Sanjay) was the force that kept all these opposing ideologies together, as soon as this force disappeared, cracks started to appear in  Janta part.

 A Critical Analysis                                          

JP was determined never to hold power in government. Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Jagjivan Ram were some of the proposed names for PM. After a lot of political turmoil, Desai was chosen as PM with Charan Singh as Home Minister. Charan Singh was not happy with this decision and this sourness will later lead to the demise of Janta party. 

Desai was many times accused of being pro-Capitalist. He was an arrogant man with orthodox thinking and took little advice from others. He was an ICS officer( now what we know as IAS). When I say pro-Capitalist in cold war era I indirectly mean CIA. India was the Disneyland of spies in that time, KGB used a policy of capturing a country through ideology. Change the vital institutions of the country and infiltrate major government bodies and get control over journalist and media, the country becomes a pseudo-communist country. Whereas the CIA poured huge sums of money through missionaries and believed in buying anything and anyone they want. Thanks to Vasili Mitrokhin we have a huge amount of KGB operations in the public domain but this privilege for CIA is not available, though American journalist Seymour Hersh, in his 1983 book The Price of Power, alleged that former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai had been paid $20,000 a year by the CIA during the Johnson and Nixon administrations.

 I cannot directly link Morarji Desai with CIA unlike I openly claim about KGB and Indira, due to legal issues. 

But I would like to point out a few facts:

1. JP movement was no simple task. Though it had popular support, but any big political movement needs funding. JP movement was no exception and was an expensive revolution. Who funded it? Though Congress claims of western influences I won't comment as I am unable to produce any verified documents for same. 


2. Desai wanted to dismantle RAW. He wasn't able to do so but had cut its funding drastically. Though RAW was infiltrated by KGB, it was an essential organisation for national security during the 1970s, when India was surrounded by hostile neighbours( we are still but now they don't try to annex India and threaten its very existence). Why this hatred for RAW even when it was so essential? Only CIA would benefit from RAW out of the picture.


3. Over friendly with Pakistan. Like India was to USSR, Pakistan was to USA. Today we see USA as an alley but it was not during the 1970s. He is the only PM to receive Nishan-e-Pakistan", Pakistan's highest civilian award. Wondering under whose influence he was so friendly with such a hostile country which just fought 3 wars with us.


4. RAW had infiltrated Pakistan's nuclear program efficiently.  Desai in a stupid act called Mohd Zia Ul Haq and told India knows everything about your(Pakistan's) Nuclear program. This alerted Pakistan and led to the killing of many RAW agents in Pakistan and them developing their own nuclear program. Wounder if it was an act of stupidity( hard to digest) or indirect help. I will cover this operation details and repercussions in the next paragraph.

I leave the interpretation of the above facts up to the readers🙃.

I won't go into Capitalism VS Communism or who was correct. As per morality and justice, all were wrong. Even today we glorify MOSSAD, CIA & RAW and demonise ISI & KGB, but that's actually hypocrisy. All these are spy agencies and none work morally with ethics or humanity. You know what ISI does in Kashmir or KGB had done in past. CIA has created the maximum number of terrorist organisations, killed innocents and most of the modern world conflicts are a gift of CIA. MOSSAD had done thousands of unethical killing of scientists and journalists all over the world. 

Think we are innocent, as a matter of fact, we are not. RAW is also responsible for terrorist activities in Pakistan, especially in Balochistan. You know about Kulbhushan Jadhav, ever heard that India abducted one of Pakistan's agent from Nepal in its response." Lt Col Mohammad Habib retired Pakistani army officer was lured to Nepal with a job prospect before being seized by Indian intelligence."- Hindustan Times( Click to read full story). Ever dug deeper into Pakistan bomb blasts. I don't want to go further as I believe I have explained my point.

I am in no aspect saying those spy agencies are bad. They are very important for our countries security. The hideous inhuman crimes they do are the reasons why we can live peacefully, freely without any fear and have the privilege of talking about morals, ethics, etc. When it comes to survival there is no act a man/ organisation/ country can't commit.
And talking about which countries are actually our friend?
ANS: none.
A country has no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends, it only has permanent interests and it can go to any extent to fulfil those interests.

Not all things were bad, 44th Constitutional Amendment 1978 was passed to undo the things in 42nd
Constitutional Amendment and put safeguards on emergency provisions.

1. Article 352 was amended and the word "Internal disturbances" was replaced by " Armed rebellion".
2. Restore the power of SC of India
3. Obliged the president to declare emergency only when there is a written recommendation from Cabinet.
4. Article 20 & 21 cannot be suspended even during emergency
5. 39th Constitutional Amendment repealed: PMO, Speakers office and PresidentRight were brought back under Judicial review.
6. Right to property removed

* to read about 39th and 42nd CAA in detail please read previous chapter 3(B), under subheading Judicial Timeline.

Operation Kahuta

This was a joint operation of RAW & MOSSAD. MOSSAD had intelligence that Pakistan was building its own nuclear weapon. You may be wondering why Israel was concerned, its because if Pakistan successfully built a nuclear weapon it would share that technology with North Korea and Arab word which would possess an existential threat to Israel. 

Abdul Qadeer Khan was working in URENCO and is alleged to steal critical nuclear technologies during that time. Later he vanished from there and was found in Pakistan. Pakistan was building multiple nuclear facilities at that time. It was almost impossible to infiltrate all the facilities for both  RAW as well as MOSSAD. It was very essential to identify the facility involved in weapons-grade enrichment. All Pakistani scientists were kept under surveillance but it was not giving any promising outcomes.

RAW came up with a unique but effective plan. They infiltrated all the barbers' shops where these scientists came for a hair cut. From these barbershops, their hair samples were collected and sent to India for testing. This plan worked. Hair samples of scientists working in the Kahuta facility had traces of highly enriched plutonium. RAW then started infiltrating this facility. RAW managed to defect a scientist from this facility who agreed to give the blueprints for a large sum of money.

According to the rule book, any such paments by RAW is directly authorised by Prime Minister. Thus then RAW chief N. F. Suntook brief Morarji Desai about this complete operation and demanded the required fund. Desai rejected the proposal straight away. Later in a phone call, he told Zia-ul-Haq that the Indian government knew about its secret nuclear bomb-making facility at Kahuta. This was the biggest blunder in Indian Intelligence history. 

Zia-ul-Haq put ISI on red alert. All Indian agents were captured, tortured and killed. Their families didn't even receive their bodies. ( Spies are not covered under Geneva Convention. Thus any spy caught in foreign county has no human right protection). Indian intelligence network chain was disrupted and pushed back Indian Intelligence program for 1o years in Pakistan

Later Pakistan developed its nuclear weapon and conducted its first subcritical test in 1983.

Retaliations on Mrs Gandhi

When Janta Party came to power it should have focused on welfare programs and economy but in contrast, its main focus was to seek revenge from Mrs Gandhi for the atrocities committed during Emergency. The first thing it did was change governors.

 

Shah Commission was formed to investigate this matter. Many top officials and bureaucrats including Sanjay Gandhi and Indira herself were summoned, though Indira Gandhi refused to cooperate and didn't gave any proper answer to any question. Many times violence between Sanjay supporters and Janta Party workers, broke inside the courtroom only especially when Sanjay Gandhi arrived. Mrs Gandhi felt vulnerable and weak. She was even considering leaving politics. Whereas Sanjay was determined to break Janata Party. The cracks were visible and Sanjay wanted to exploit them. 

Some moves by Janta party were self-destructive. Few charges on Mrs Gandhi like treason were very severe but most of them rather foolish and baseless. For example, she was even made co-accused in a case of stealing eggs and chicken in Manipur. This diluted the severity of actual charges and formed a public opinion for Mrs Gandhi being harrassed by Janta party. Frequent arrests of Mrs Gandhi on such baseless charges worked in her favour. Janta Party lost its seriousness and Mrs Gandhi gained public support and sympathy.

Wondering at a time when even radios were considered as luxury, how was the public aware of such small incidences?

ANS: KGB, as I always say, they are always there in the background. Especially when public opinion formation or massive inflow of propaganda in newspapers is concerned. If you want to know why KGB is helping Mrs Gandhi, please read CHAPTER 3(A): Into The COLD-WAR or Mitrokhin Archive II.

INDIRA ONCE MORE

Belchi Massacre 1977

Belchi is a small village in Bihar. In 1977 many people of the lower caste were ruthlessly murdered on May 27 in riots. Their condition was very miserable. Indira acted swiftly and decided to visit Belchi. Her advisors were trying to convince her not to go as it could be life-threatening for her but she had made up her mind. 
Bihar was struck by flood at the time Mrs Gandhi arrived. She travelled a large distance by road but due to flood in the river, her jeep could not go further. She was again advised to return back as it could be life-threatening for her. Instead, she continued on an elephant. No anti-Indira slogans were heard, no black flags were shown. When she reached Belchi on elephant people had hope in their eyes after seeing her. "Indira tere abhao men Harijan mare jate hain" (Indira, in your absence, Harijan are being killed)" slogans were raised. When this news along with her photo on elephant propagated through the newspapers it became evident that Indira Gandhi was still a very popular leader among people.

You may be wondering why she risked her life for this particular incident?
ANS: One may question India Gandhi for her ideology but there is no iota of doubt on her political wit and this was a masterstroke. The answer lies in demographics. Belchi was a poor Dalit village in Bihar. The caste system is a very sad reality of this country. The so-called upper cast is just 26% of the population, that too divided and selfish. Similarly Rich and the middle class was just 9% of the population. Elections are just number game. Thus Indira took a well-calculated risk, and it was worth it. Indira Gandhi's popularity rose exponentially.

Sanjay: Backend developer

I told in the beginning that Charan Singh was not happy with the power distribution, but due to lack of support, he was adjusting. Remember Raj Narain, who filed the case whose judgement would lead to the proclamation of emergency. ( If not read the previous chapter)

Raj Narain advocated for Charan Singh's PM candidature. Differences and altercation on many decisions were frequent and Sanjay was well aware of it. Sanjay was in close contact with Raj Narain for supporting Charan Singh as PM. Wounders of politics, the Raj Narain whose case led to all these troubles of Mrs Gandhi was now in close contacts with her son.
Sanjay came to know that Charan Singh was a blind follower of an astrologer and did whatever the astrologer advised. Sanjay tried to bribe that astrologer to work for him but the astrologer refused to do so.

Sanjay and Raj Narain started breaking Janta party from inside. Sanjay was sure it could not be done until Jana Sangh( predecessor of BJP) was in Janta Party. A situation was created regarding dual membership of Jana Sangh leaders like L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. They were members of Janta Party as well as RSS. They were asked to leave RSS membership and remain members of Jana Sangh only. Sanjay knew this won't happen. Thus Jana Sangh leaders resigned from Janta Party. ( I know party names are confusing, even I faced problem when first read it in class IX polity).
With time many other leaders also started leaving the Janta Party. Pressure on Desai was building for resignation. When Desai's close supporter George Fernandes also resigned, then Desai decided to step down. 

Indira and Sanjay were sceptical about Charan Singh as he was a much bigger threat( regarding legal actions for emergency) than Desai. They just used Charan Singh as a tool to break the Janta Party. Congresses promised to support Charan Singh as PM. After Desai resigned Charan Singh claimed a majority in front of the president and became the PM. As soon as this happened Congress withdrew its support and Charan Singh government came in minority. He never faced the Loksabha as he knew he won't be able to prove his majority on the floor. Sanjay's plan worked. 

After the time limit for proving majority expired, general elections were declared. Indira Gandhi's popularity was high again and people had a perception that Janta Paty was not strong enough to run the country. All parties of Janta Party contested separately and thus Congress was again elected to power by a landslide victory. Shah Commission report came by this time but the government had changed. Thus Shah Commission report was never implemented.( By the time next government came both Indira and Sanjay had deceased)

INDIRA 3.0

I want to share one of my personal experience before starting this part.

Photo not of that day, But an example of typical hostel room panchayat

Last year I was sitting with 3 of my friends, Piyush, Dhiraj and Rohit in their hostel room. We were discussing about Kashmir, they told its hopeless to believe that situation will improve, when I mentioned that Punjab had much worse condition back in the 1980s. They were stunned and thought I was joking as today we all know Sikhs are true patriots, how can they be involved in militancy. Today except for some radical Islamic groups and some supporters of Dravida Nadu, every person will say he/she is Indian first. This was not the condition as late as the 1990s. Today we enjoy a united India but earlier it was a very fragile nation plagued by insurgency in many parts. Most of my generation don't know anything about these problems as they are not in our curriculum. This is my effort to fill this gap. So let's track this from the beginning.

*Most of Sikh even then opposed these insergents, infact it was sincere efforts of Sikh officers like Kanwar Pal Singh Gill who brought the Punjab insurgency under control. Even today misconduct by some results in steriotyping of whole community.

Creation of Bhindranwale

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a Sant of Taksal. After emergency Congress was defeated in many states including Punjab. Akali Dal came to power in Punjab. Sanjay along with Giani Zail Singh( to be Home minister and then president of India) started planning for bringing Akali Dal down. Zail Singh was a very prominent leader from Punjab at that time. Many leaders were interviewed by Sanjay in Delhi. Sanjay was very impressed by Bhindranwale's aggressive personality, thus he was chosen to overthrow Akali Dal government in Punjab. There was a violent clash between Nirankari Sikhs and Amritdhari Sikhs in Amritsar. The Akali Dal government was biased against Bhindranwale and many Amritdhari culprits were released. Bhindranwale's men were targetted by police. This enraged orthodox Sikhs. This earned Bhindranwale large support. He even received fund from congress which he used to buy arms. In a famous incident, Swaran Singh(ex-defence & ex-foreign minister) sat on the ground in front of Bhindranwale. When offered a chair, he refused, saying he cannot sit on a chair in front of the Sant. This showed stature of Bhindranwale. Slowly Bhindranwale became a bigger leader than Zail Singh himself. In 1980, Akali Dal lost. Though in an interview with BBC Indira Gandhi refused any connections with Bhindranwale but it was an established fact that he helped congress in winning elections.

Death of Sanjay Gandhi

It's said for Indira Gandhi, one of her sons was a politician, tried to become a pilot and died, other was a pilot, tried to become a politician and died. On 23 June 1980, Sanjay Gandhi was flying a new aircraft of the Delhi Flying Club and while performing an aerobatic manoeuvre over his office, lost control and crashed. Sorrow was spread everywhere except two places, KGB residency in India and the Centre( KGB Moscow headquarters). Indira was just the face by then, all major decisions were being taken by Sanjay Gandhi. KGB was celebrating because they had no control over Sanjay. They could not influence him. After his death, KGB could again manipulate the Indian government as they please.

Same happens with Bhindranwale, after Sanjay, he was just a loose cannon and its effects started showing up by 1981 itself. 

Rise of Militancy in Punjab.

 In 1981 census started. Punjab Kesari was a local newspaper of Punjab. Its editor started campaigning for Hindi and appealed all Hindus living in Punjab to register their mother language as Hindi, not Punjabi. Such editorials enraged Sikhs in Punjab. Till now it was just a political game but with this incidence, Bhindranwale's movement got a communal angle of Hindu vs Sikh. Lala Jagat Narain, editor of Punjab Kesari was assassinated by Bhindranwale's men. He was arrested but released due to pressure by Indira Gandhi on the advice of Zail Singh. Bhindranwale with his armed men was roaming freely organising rallies across Bombay, Punjab, Haryana Delhi. Congress was supporting Bhindranwale till this point.

Asian Games a triggering point

After a long time, such a big event was being organised in India. Bhindranwale warned that he will protest in Delhi, in response government sealed Delhi-Haryana border and all Sikhs were screened some even humiliated by police. This further escalated the extremist and separatist ideologies Sikhs.
Bhindranwale used this event to justify his militant approach by telling people the government is treating Sikhs as a second class citizen. Indira Gandhi made Giani Zail Singh president in hope of improving the conditions, but this was of no use. 

Punjab streets were bloodstained. The most infamous event, a senior IPS officer was shot dead on steps on Golden Temple. His dead body laid there for 2 hours but police could not dare to reclaim it. CM of Punjab pleaded Bhindranwale to allow them to take the body. This incident was a blow to police moral. On October 5, 1983, a bus from Kapurthala to Jalandhar was stopped by Sikh militants. Hindus were identified brought down and shot on point-blank. The same incident repeated within a month on a bus from Amritsar to Chandigarh. If no action would have been taken this situation would have escalated to something like the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits.

By this time ISI had developed active links with Bhindranwale. These militants were even being supported by pro- Khalistan separatists in Canada, Uk etc.  Even today's Canadian government supports these Khalistani separatists and gives them funding, Political power and international support. This is the reason why we treated Justin Trudeau the way we did. Assault rifles, Ak47s, anti-tank launchers and bullets were being supplied in Wheat sacks into the golden temple. Golden Temple was transformed into an armed fortress. Punjab government was dissolved and presidents rule was imposed.
Bhindranwale captured Akal Takt. This sent a huge symbolic message to Mrs Gandhi.

Operation Bluestar

Indira Gandhi was named Iron Lady and believe me, she earned that title. Even though she was advised not to Mrs Gandhi decided to use the army in Punjab. Secret information was being leaked by Rashtrapati Bhawan, thus this operation was kept hidden from the president Zail Singh.

Now NSA Ajit Doval was a RAW operative at that time. He disguised as an auto driver and started roaming around the Golden Temple. As expected he was captured where he impersonated an ISI operative sent by Pakistan to help them and they believed. In a few sorties, he memorised the map of the temple and drew it on a piece of paper. This included information like how many men are there, where are the ammunitions kept, what weapons do they have, etc. He would again play a major role in Operation BlackThunder, that will be conducted to eliminate residual Sikh militants.

After all negotiations with Bhindranwale failed Indira Gandhi sent in Army. President Zail Singh was taken aback as this complete operation was kept secret from him. He was furious, many thought he would resign but he stood with the government instead. Just a few days before actual army operation Satish Jacob had an interview with Bhindranwale, Jacob asked how will Bhindranwal face mighty Indian Army to which Bhindranwale replied that Pakistan border was just 28km away. He told Jacob that they would retreat to Pakistan and maintain constant guerilla warfare from there.

Indian Army sealed the Indo Pak border. Announced all to come out of the Golden Temple. On 8 June 1984, the Indian army entered Golden Temple. Many casualties happened from both sides. The army captured the temple within a day. Use of army on citizens is very shameful for any country. Whether this act was justified or not I won't comment. The real issue is why thing escalated to this point. Why wasn't Bhindranwale neutralised much before things got worse? Lack of political will I say. Even though the army was instructed not to harm the temple collateral damages happened in the crossfire. Many parts of the temple were demolished. Though the government offered to rebuild the temple but Sikhs refused and built the temple on their own.

Why we can't do that in Kashmir? Modi gov has the political will similar to Mrs Gandhi!
ANS: OIC- Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. I must not use this language but the international community didn't care much for Sikhs as for Sikhs, Hindus & Jains there is no dedicated international organisation to protect them. Due to the same reason, there was minimal criticism from other countries and international organisations on Kashmiri pandit genocide 1990.  If we even plan to do such operation in Kashmir, we would face serious repercussions from the international community especially OIC. We don't understand the gravity of the situation, scraping of Article 370 was extremely dangerous. It is the genius of our diplomats and foreign ministry that no serious actions or sanctions occurred.

The Assassination of Indira Gandhi

The security experts advised Mrs Gandhi to remove all Sikh guards but she refused. From her last speeches and letters, it was evident that she was expecting a violent death.

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at 9:29 a.m. on 31 October 1984 at her residence in Safdarjung Road, New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star.

 

Can you recognise the kid in this Photograph?

The whole country was in sorrow and congress in anger. Sikh riots broke in Delhi and other parts of India. Next Chapter 3(D) will cover Sikh Riots, Rajeev and Sonia Gandhi, LTTE, end of Cold War and many more. Please Subscribe to be notified for new posts. ( IIT students don't use your institute IDs they are showing some errors: work in progress| use general IDs like google, yahoo, etc).

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