Sonia Gandhi’s memoir recounts Indira’s tears after Blue Star

Sonia Gandhi’s memoir says Indira Gandhi watched footage of the aftermath of Operation Blue Star with tears on her face, which Sonia interpreted as pain, regret and sorrow. The account has drawn criticism from Sikh political representatives, while a Congress leader said the party had never justified the 1984 military operation.

In Belonging: A Journey of Love, Sonia Gandhi recounts that an intelligence official brought Indira Gandhi a film showing destruction inside the Golden Temple complex after the Indian Army operation. She says she saw her mother-in-law’s face wet with tears as the footage played, and understood the reaction as sorrow over the operation’s ending and the lives lost. That interpretation is Sonia Gandhi’s account of a private moment; the supplied reports do not independently corroborate what Indira Gandhi felt.

Sonia Gandhi’s memoir describes the operation as a reluctant decision made after violence in Punjab and the arming of militants inside the shrine. It says the operation began on June 1, 1984, and that troops entered the Golden Temple complex on June 4. The account says the complex had been fortified and sustained damage during the fighting. Operation...