New Delhi [India], October 12 (ANI): Congress leader Rashid Alvi questioned whether his party's senior leader and former Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram, is being coerced into making statements against the party, as criminal cases against the latter are still pending.

Alvi questioned why Chidambaram is criticising the Operation Blue Star under the Indira Gandhi-led government in 1984, after 50 years, terming the former Home Minister's statement as 'unfortunate.'

Rashid Alvi's remarks come after P Chidambaram described Operation Blue Star as 'the wrong way' to retrieve the Golden Temple.

Speaking with ANI, Alvi said, 'Whether Operation Blue Star was right or wrong is a different matter. But what compels P Chidambaram to attack the Congress party, Indira Gandhi, claiming she took the wrong step, after 50 years? He's doing the same thing the BJP and the Prime Minister would do. It's unfortunate. Chidambaram ji's repeated attacks on the Congress party are raising many doubts and misgivings. Criminal cases against him are still pending. I wonder if he's under any pressure to continue attacking the Congress party.'

Alvi expressed his surprise over Chidambaram's criticism of Congress instead of BJP, calling his attack on Indira Gandhi and party as 'unfair.'

'What's the need today to say Indira Gandhi was responsible for Blue Star and that she had to sacrifice her life for it? I don't understand why Chidambaram is doing this instead of highlighting the BJP's shortcomings over the past 11 years. Instead of highlighting how the BJP is ruining the entire country, he's pointing out the shortcomings of the Congress party. This is unfair,' he said.

Speaking at the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival 2025 on Saturday, the former Union Home and Finance Minister P Chidambaram criticised the Operation Blue Star under the Indira Gandhi-led government in 1984, describing it as 'the wrong way', and said that the former Prime Minister paid with her life for the 'mistake'.

Chidambaram said that Operation Black Thunder was the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple, by keeping the Army out of the Sikh worship place.

The June 1984 Operation Blue Star was a cumulative decision of the Army, the police, the intelligence and the civil services, he said.

He said, 'No disrespect to any military officers here, but that (Blue Star) was the wrong way to retrieve the Golden Temple. A few years later, we showed the right way to retrieve the Golden Temple by keeping out the Army.'

'Mrs Gandhi (former PM Indira Gandhi) paid with her life for that mistake. It was a cumulative decision of the Army, Police, intelligence and the civil services. You cannot blame it only on Mrs Gandhi,' the former Union Minister said.

Chidambaram was addressing a gathering during a discussion on the 'They Will Shoot You, Madam: My life through conflict' with author Harinder Baweja.

Operation Blue Star was a 10-day military operation spanning from June 1 to June 10, 1984.

June 6, 1984, marked the day when the Indian Army, under Operation Blue Star, stormed into the Golden Temple on orders of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to contain Sikh militancy under the leadership of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in Punjab. It was reported that Bhindranwale had stashed large quantities of arms on the Golden Temple premises.

Bhindranwale was the head of the radical Sikh outfit Damdami Taksal. He, along with his armed followers, was killed during Operation Blue Star, launched by the Indian Army to flush out the militants from the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.

The Operation was heavily criticised. Months later, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards at her New Delhi residence on October 31, 1984. (ANI)