'Kamal Nath and Sanjay Gandhi sent funds to Bhindranwale...' Ex-RAW officer's sensational claim
Former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) special secretary GBS Sidhu suggests that political leaders at the time utilized Bhindranwale to instill fear among the Hindu community and fabricate the Khalistan issue, thereby sowing apprehension about the nation's integrity.
FollowFormer special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), GBS Sidhu, has made a sensuous claim about Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sanjay Gandhi sending funds to militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who was killed during Operation Blue Star in 1984. Sidhu, during a podcast with ANI Editor Smita Prakash, suggested that at that time, political leadership leveraged Bhindranwale as a means to instil fear among the Hindu community and fabricate the Khalistan issue to sow apprehension about the nation's integrity.
Sidhu stated, "... At that time, the method used was Bhindranwale Khalistan. So they will use Bhindranwale to scare the Hindus & a new issue will be created of Khalistan which was non-existent at that time. So that larger population of India starts thinking that there would be a danger to the integrity of the country."
Furthermore, the former RAW official quoted Kamal Nath as expressing the Congress's intention to recruit a "high-profile" saint who would align with their interests. According to Sidhu, Kamal Nath revealed, "We wanted to recruit a very high-profile Sant who could do our bidding... He (Kamal Nath) also says - we used to send money to him. Kamal Nath & Sanjay Gandhi sent money to Bhindranwale."
Sidhu maintained that Bhindranwale had never explicitly demanded Khalistan but suggested that he wouldn't reject it if it were presented to him by Indira Gandhi.
Sidhu contended, "Bhindranwale never asked for Khalistan in his life, he would only say -- 'Agar Bibi, meaning Indira Gandhi, meri jholi mein daal degi toh naa bhi nahi karoonga'... They did not enlist religious sermons, they used him for political purposes."
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the head of the Sikh religious sect Damdami Taksal, lost his life along with his followers during Operation Blue Star, an Indian Army operation conducted at the Golden Temple complex between June 1 and June 8, 1984, on the orders of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In an earlier episode of the podcast in January, Lt Gen (retd) Kuldeep Singh Brar, who led Operation Blue Star in 1984, asserted that Indira Gandhi had allowed Bhindranwale to gain prominence as a kind of "Frankenstein monster" and decided to take action only when he had reached his zenith. Lt Gen (retd) Brar argued that the political leadership at the time had enabled Bhindranwale's rise, pointing to a complex interplay between the Akali and Congress parties.
