Cong leadership 'very upset' over Chidambaram's 'Operation Bluestar' remark

New Delhi, Oct 12 (PTI) The Congress leadership is "very upset" with former Home Minister P Chidambaram for his remarks on 'Operation Bluestar', and is of the view that senior leaders should be careful before making public statements that create embarrassment for the party, sources said on Sunday.

Chidambaram, while speaking at a literary event in Kasauli on Saturday, said that Operation Bluestar was "wrong" and the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi "paid the price with her life for the mistake".

Party sources said the Congress leadership was of the view that "senior leaders, who have got everything from the Congress party, should be more careful in making statements that create embarrassments for the party. And, this cannot become a habit".

They said senior leaders should make public statements with care because their repeated statements create problems for the party which is not correct.

"The top party leadership is very upset and the entire party is very upset. The rank and file of the party is agitated why this is happening repeatedly," the sources said, in the context of Chidambaram who has in the recent past too made some remarks that have embarrassed the party.

At the Khushwant Singh Literary Festival in Himachal's Kasauli, Chidambaram said, "There was a way to retrieve and capture all the militants but Operation Blue Star was a wrong way".

Chidambaram, a Rajya Sabha MP, while in conversation with journalist and author Harinder Baweja on her book 'They Will Shoot You Madam: My Life Through Conflict', said, "there was a way to retrieve and capture all militants but Operation Blue Star was a wrong way and I agree that Mrs Gandhi paid with her life for the mistake but the mistake was cumulative decision of the Army, Intelligence, Police and Civil defense and you cannot completely blame on Mrs Gandhi".

Operation Blue Star was a military operation undertaken between June 1 and June 10, 1984 to remove Damdami Taksal leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his militants from the premises of the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. PTI SKC SKC DV DV