The 10.31.84 Incident: The aftermath and Dirty War 2.0 by the Military Junta

[Sergeant Foley]

Evening everyone. I've been intrigued by India, the politics of the country, political turmoil, and how India was altered by the aftermath of Operation Blue Star as well as the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Having seen timelines ranging from the 1970s or 1980s on AH.com, I decided to do a timeline on the chaos ensuing in India in my own version of a timeline. I got a little bit of a sketch detailed out for me which will guide me. Enjoy and feel free to give input.

 

[Sergeant Foley]

How the violent end of Operation Blue Star escalated into anger and violence....
June 1984
Amritsar, Punjab, India
​

"whenever I look at this woman. I get angry after what she did by sending the Army into Akal Takht. I want to send this b***& a clear message by teaching her a lesson. I will find a way how...."
-Beant Singh.

The controversial military operation, Operation Blue Star, which Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had rejected the Anadpur Resolution and ordered the Indian Army to launch the operation, which resulted in the violent attacks on Sikh temples across Punjab. Depending on who you would believe, estimates had placed the number of casualties overall at 554 militants and civilians dead, including 83 killed (4 officers, 79 soldiers), 236 wounded among government forces. On June 6th, the Indian Army had detained surviving pilgrims on the grounds that they were affiliated with the militants and subjected them to interrogations, beatings, violent torturing techniques including executions.

Soon afterwards, backlash over the Indian government's handling of Operation Blue Star including the violent aftermath had escalated as many in the Sikh community both inside and outside of India were furious and they wanted answers and also demanding the resignation of Indian President Zail Singh. At first, he considered resignation in order to let the country heal, but ultimately decided against resigning because he was worried about alienating and infuriating Harbhajan Singh Khalsa, (known as Yogi Bhajan). Singh was also called before the Akal Takht and there, Sikhs were angry, cussing out the President, demanding he apologize; Singh was also asked to explain why didn't he do anything to prevent the violent desecration of the Golden Temple including the deaths of innocent Sikhs.

Singh had assumed the fallout and backlash would just blow over and folks would move on. They did NOT!

Several weeks later, Singh decided to visit the temple premises following Operation Blue Star, and while making the round, someone fired a sniper from somewhere at one of the buildings because the Indian Army hadn't cleared any of the surrounding buildings on the premises; the bullet meant for the President, actually hit an Army colonel's arm, who was accompanying President Singh. He wasn't the one to face backlash over the controversial military operation....

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the daughter of the legendary Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who was in her third term of office, was also facing death threats. The perceptions of death threats against the country's first female Prime Minister and this had so alarmed the Intelligence Bureau to removing of Sikhs from her personal bodyguard detail, but Gandhi had thought the removal of Sikhs would cause her political opponents to use ammunition against her by calling her anti-Sikh, so she forced the SGP to reinstate her Sikh bodyguards particularly Beant Singh, whom some believed was one of her favorite bodyguards. Sadly, this turned out to be a fatal mistake on the part of the Prime Minister.....

 

[Sergeant Foley]

COMING UP IN THE DIRTY WAR 2.0
The 10.31.84 Incident that changed India forever.......

​

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Coming up tomorrow: Chapter 1 begins with the 10.31.84 Incident 😎

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Technical difficulties due to the computer crashing on me. I'll attempt to get Chapter 1 started hopefully this afternoon.

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Chapter 1: The day which changed India forever....
9:20 AM IST, Wednesday, October 31, 1984
1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, India

Beant Singh saluting Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi just minutes before altering the course of Indian history....​

The fallout and backlash over the Indian government's controversial and disastrous handling of Operation Blue Star had escalated so bad, the country was on the verge of total chaos. In the eyes of two Sikh bodyguards, Beant and his brother, Satwant Singh, they wanted revenge for the Golden Temple including those who worshiped there in Punjab (the Golden Temple which was violently desecrated by the Indian Army in the Summer of 1984 during Operation Blue Star) which resulted in multiple death of countless pilgrims and innocent people. Conspiring with Kehar Singh and possible other co-conspirators, who wanted to send a message to the Indian government including those involved in Operation Blue Star: the country needed saviors, who would sacrifice their lives for the "greater good" in saving the Republic of India, Beant and Satwant Singh would be the ones, who would send a strong, clear message.

Beant had been one of Gandhi's personal favorite guards for the past ten years. However, due to the fallout of Operation Blue Star, the Special Protection Group (SPG) had removed Beant, who was a Sikh. However, Gandhi strongly overruled their recommendations by reinstating Beant to the protection detail; as I had mentioned before, this proved to be a fatal mistake on the part of the three-term Prime Minister of India. His brother, Satwant, was just 22 years old and had been on the protection detail for only just five months.

For Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, she had a busy, packed schedule planned: she was scheduled to shoot a major documentary for British documentary filmmaker Peter Ustinov, who was with her in Bhubaneswar. The first major appointment of her schedule was set for October 31st, and Ustinov was first on the list. Later on in the day, Gandhi was scheduled to meet with former British Prime Minister James Callaghan and later in that night, she was to host a scheduled dinner for Princess Anne, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the British Royal Family.

Now on the fateful Wednesday morning, October 31st. Gandhi was getting ready for her interview with Ustinov, which was scheduled to take place at the Prime Minister's Office located at 1 Akbar Road adjacent to her official residence. During her last meal, she had breakfast which consisted of the following: toasts, orange juice, eggs and some breakfast cereals. She was also wearing a saffron saree with a black border for the scheduled documentary shoot; she also had applied makeup for the shoot, which sadly would never come. Dr. KP Mathur arrived at the Prime Minister's Residence after Gandhi was done eating breakfast. Mathur checked the Prime Minister's health every morning; Ustinov was waiting for the Prime Minister to arrive at the Prime Minister's Office, which was then located at 1 Akbar Road. The time was 9:10 AM IST and Gandhi left her personal residence in the fateful walk through the garden towards the Prime Minister's Office. Accompanying the three-term Prime Minister was constable Narayan Singh, personal security officer Rameshwar Dayal and personal secretary RK Dhawan, the veteran Congress leader in Parliament.

In the meantime, Beant and Satwant had given coded-messages to motion that everything's on the go: it was time to "Save the Republic" in the eyes of the Singh brothers. While the Prime Minister was walking toward the gates of 1 Akbar Road, she was having a conversation with Dhawan; Singh was carrying a black umbrella to protect her from the early winter sun. Beant was nervous, with the adrenaline rushing so aggressively and here comes the moment, the Prime Minister and her entourage was coming towards him near the wicked gate. Beant slowly walked up to them and saluted the Prime Minister. In a super-slow motion moment, Beant then slowly took out his revolver out of his left gun-holster and pointed it at the target, it was in his words, "avenging the Golden Temple"....

Startled by the danger facing her, Gandhi asked Beant, "What are you doing?" to which Beant responded to the three-term Prime Minister, "Revenge for Akhal Takht, madam" and all of a sudden at 9:20 AM IST, Beant fired the first shot: BANG, which hit her in the abdomen; those who were accompanying her, ducked to avoid gunfire, hitting the ground. This was the cue for Satwant to get ready as he was cocking his carbine machine-gun while Beant fired two additional shots: BANG! BANG! as Gandhi was horrified and shocked by getting shot.

"GET OVER HERE AND KILL THIS BITCH" Beant snapped at his brother. Satwant was ready, aimed his carbine machine-gun at the Prime Minister, who was wounded, turned around and was shot 30 times by Satwant's carbine machine-gun, which was emptied, most of the bullets pierced the Prime Minister's body. Dayal was also shot by the gunfire and fell down. As other security guards tried to figure out what was going on, a team of co-conspirators ambushed them via machine-gun fire, killing five of the guards. As the Prime Minister was on the ground, bleeding from the 30 gunshot wounds, what she must've been thinking about the betrayal of her bodyguards, wondering why would Beant, one of her personal trusted bodyguards do this to her, flashacks of her 66 years of life from childhood to present, was flashing before her very eyes while she continued to bleed to death....

Once their mission was finished, several of the SPG bodyguards showed up, one of whom yelled "DROP THE WEAPON", both Singh brothers dropped their weapons, which Beant replied "I have done what I had to do. Now you can do whatever you want with us." While that was going on, those accompanying the Prime Minister had tried to wake her "Madam, Madam. They shot the Prime Minister. Somebody call an ambulance" .

However, somewhere during the six minutes after the shooting, Border Police officers Tarsem Singh Jamwal and Ram Saran had shot and killed Beant, who was trying to attack the other police officers in some building on the grounds. The other officers had also shot Satwant, who was trying to escape including one of their accomplices Kehar Singh, who failed to escape.

 

[Sergeant Foley]

The Aftermath.....
Wednesday, October 31, 1984
1 Safdarjung Road, New Delhi, India
​

Soon after the shooting, Dhawan and a police officer, Dinesh Bhatt carried Gandhi to her Ambassador vehicle. Her political secretary Makhanlal Fotedar was also there. As they were beginning to head towards the All India Institute of Medical Services Hospital, they heard Gandhi's daughter-in-law, Sonia Gandhi (the wife of Rajiv Gandhi) running out of the residence shouting at the top of her lungs, "Mummy, Mummy". All of whom took the wounded Prime Minister to AIIMS, who hadn't been informed of the shooting, and to make things worse, they were not prepared for dealing with the emergency.

Upon arrival at AIIMS at 9:32 AM IST, the doctors and surgeons took some time for them in order to put everything in place for the emergency surgery. Gandhi had been shot more than 30 times, but surprisingly, her heart was still intact. Despite their hardworking efforts, Gandhi was declared dead at 2:20 PM IST at the age of 66. The Republic of India was rocked to its core and a power vacuum inside the Indian government had just occurred to which some ambitious politicians and military officials would slowly, but surely exploit the chaos in jockeying themselves for power and more power....

The autopsy of the late Prime Minister was conducted by several team of doctors including Dr. Tirath Das Dogra, who confirmed that 30 bullets struck Gandhi from a Sterling sub-machine gun and a revolver. Both of the assailants had fired a total of 36 bullets at her, of which 30 of them had hit; 23 of them passed through her body and seven other bullets remained inside her body. Dogra had extracted the bullets out of Gandhi's body in order to establish the identity of the weapons and also correlate each weapon with the bullets recovered by ballistic examination. Upon further examination, these bullets were confirmed as a match with other similar weapons at the CFSL Delhi.

​

 

[Sergeant Foley]

COMING UP IN CHAPTER 2 OF THE DIRTY WAR 2.0
Rajiv Gandhi becomes the new Prime Minister of India and how he grapples with leading the country in the aftermath of his mother's assassination

​

 

[Eagle fox]

So judging by the title, is this gonna escalate into Indo-Pak War or Indian civil war or something else?

 

[Sergeant Foley]

So judging by the title, is this gonna escalate into Indo-Pak War or Indian civil war or something else?

Let's just say some in the Indian Army might pull a Videla (see Argentine Military Junta regime, 1976-83) & it'll be very bloodthirsty.

Haven't gotten that far yet, but it's safe to say that Singh won't finish out his 5-year term as President 🤔

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Coming up next in Chapter 2:
1.) Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi: How their lives would be altered by the aftermath of Indira's assassination
2.) Anti-Sikh sentiment escalates as those inside Parliament pin the blame on Sikhs; some angry Indians use the assassination as an excuse for their heinous actions against innocent Sikhs (divided into several parts)
3.) The public pays their respects; foreign dignitaries offering condolences
4.) November 3, 1984: Final Farewell to the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

Coming up in Chapter 3:
1.) Ambitious folks jockeying for position and more power
2.) Power vacuum in India as some inside Indian Army take advantage of the turmoil by courting those to join their side
3.) The coup d'etat against Indian President Zail Singh succeeds
4.) Military Junta controls the entire Indian government

 

[Gillan1220]

First time seeing an India-centric timeline. Subbed.

 

[Sergeant Foley]

@Eagle fox @Gillan1220 @ImperialxWarlord Beginning next week: some Congress members in Parliament instigate anti-Sikh sentiment by encouraging violent anti-Sikh attacks.

PoVs from some members of the Sikh community, who were trapped in the ugly bloodbath.

 

[NHBL]

This shounds interesting, and I'll admit that I know bery little abou India, sad to say. Subbed.
(And I'm going to NEED to pay attention to India for the timeline I'm working on, since the Middle East and nearby Islamic coutries are having a lot of troubles--and Pakistan having trouble means opportunity or trouble for India.)
Looks good!

 

[Sergeant Foley]

This shounds interesting, and I'll admit that I know bery little abou India, sad to say. Subbed.
(And I'm going to NEED to pay attention to India for the timeline I'm working on, since the Middle East and nearby Islamic coutries are having a lot of troubles--and Pakistan having trouble means opportunity or trouble for India.)
Looks good!

I am slowly putting things together in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 is when things get really chaotic.

 

[Gillan1220]

@Eagle fox @Gillan1220 @ImperialxWarlord Beginning next week: some Congress members in Parliament instigate anti-Sikh sentiment by encouraging violent anti-Sikh attacks.

PoVs from some members of the Sikh community, who were trapped in the ugly bloodbath.

I wonder what the butterflies would be on the world stage?

 

[Sergeant Foley]

I wonder what the butterflies would be on the world stage?

Haven't gotten that far yet, but there will be international reaction to the Gandhi assassination.

The big question is whether the Pakistani's will exploit this?

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Sometime over the weekend: I'll be working on a segment PoV from one of the co-conspirators, who escaped. Keep an eye on that one 😎

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Personal PoV from one of the co-conspirators.....
12:00 PM IST, Wednesday, October 31, 1984
New Delhi International Airport
New Delhi, India
​

"I knew that Beant and Satwant Singh needed to be sacrificed for the greater good of saving good of 'Saving the Republic' by any means necessary. After fleeing the premises once everyone was distracted, I drove home by motorcycle and knew the authorities were coming for those involved, so I decided to get a clean shave, getting rid of the beard, getting a fresh haircut and got my family out to the airport where I'll meet them later. After grabbing my passport and other personal belongings, I closed the door, locking it tight and left the neighborhood never looking back, finally arriving at the airport at 10:43 AM, where I met my wife, Rashi and our five daughters.

Rashi asked me "What's going on? Why are we're at the airport and can you tell me what's going on here?" I told her that a mission was finished and things were chaotic. After going through several checkpoints, we got to the nearest plane, where we got in our seats, got buckled in and waited for the plane to leave, which took off at 12:56 PM IST.

During the long flight which lasted more than six hours, the radio intercom informed all of the passengers that Gandhi was dead from injuries sustained in the gunfire at 1 Safdarjung Road earlier this morning. After quietly breathing a sigh of relief, I knew the authorities weren't coming for me or anyone else involved in the planning, organizing or oriented details.

Little did I realize of the violent rampage and carnage going on back home in India, a country that I sacrificed for and couldn't stand by or do nothing following Operation Blue Star. Wondering if any of my colleagues who sympathized with us managed to flee the country. By the time we arrived at our destination in Madrid, Spain at 8:00 AM and safely got out of the plane, where I took Rashi and our five daughters to a vehicle and drove all the way to the outskirts of Madrid, then took a long nap due to the long flight...."

 

[NHBL]

Nice.
He took a bit of a risk taking a long flight; I suspect that, if his escape had been noticed, Spain would have been happy to snag him when he got off.