Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has written in her book that her mother-in-law, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was distressed by the images emerging from Operation Blue Star. The claim, reported ahead of the release of Gandhi's memoir on Tuesday, has drawn a sharp response from the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

What Sonia Gandhi wrote

Sonia Gandhi's book is titled Belonging: A Journey of Love, and it is released on Tuesday. NDTV reported that she wrote in the book that Indira Gandhi was distressed by the images emerging from Operation Blue Star, the military operation carried out inside the Golden Temple complex in June 1984. In an interview with The Guardian ahead of the release, Gandhi said that when her mother-in-law was shown images of the devastation during the operation, tears rolled down her face. The memoir, published by HarperCollins India, runs to 544 pages and covers her life from childhood in Italy to her years in Indian politics.

Gandhi told The Guardian that after Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi received threats to her life. She was quoted as saying, "She told us what to do in case she died, so she knew." Gandhi added, "She was making preparations for her death. She told Rahul he must be brave and not to cry." Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by her Sikh bodyguards, in retaliation for Operation Blue Star. Sonia Gandhi has also described in the memoir how she found her mother-in-law lying on the ground, riddled with bullets, after hearing what sounded like fireworks at home that morning.

Akali Dal hits back

Reacting sharply to the reports, Shiromani Akali Dal spokesperson Arshdeep Singh Kler questioned the Congress leadership's expression of anguish. He said the operation was a direct attack on the Sikh community and Sri Akal Takht Sahib, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs. He alleged that Operation Blue Star was carried out as part of a conspiracy and said the pain of the incident would remain in the hearts of Sikhs for generations. Kler also drew a parallel with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, saying the pain inflicted by the Congress could not be described in words. He said, "The Congress committed genocide against Sikhs and innocent Sikhs were murdered," and asked the party leadership to speak to families who lost their loved ones and saw their homes burnt down.

Defending the Congress, party working president Raj Kumar Verka said the party had never justified Operation Blue Star. He maintained that the Congress stood with Punjab and its people. Verka also pointed to visits by Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi to the Golden Temple, saying both leaders had offered prayers at the Sikh shrine. The exchange has once again brought the sensitive legacy of Operation Blue Star and the 1984 anti-Sikh violence into Punjab's political discourse, with the Akali Dal questioning the Congress's moral position on the events of 1984 and the Congress seeking to distance itself from any justification of the military operation.

The memoir and the Guardian interview

The row comes from a Guardian interview and an edited extract from the memoir published on November 7, ahead of the book's release on November 10. In the same interview, Sonia Gandhi described the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi as a mistake and said she cried while witnessing the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992, according to The Tribune. She said she believed her mother-in-law had eventually come to share her views on the Emergency. The memoir also covers the tragedies that shaped the Gandhi family, including the deaths of Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, and her decision to decline the prime ministership in 2004.

Operation Blue Star was the Army operation at the Golden Temple in June 1984 to flush out militants, including Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Indira Gandhi was shot dead by two of her Sikh bodyguards four months later. The events of 1984 continue to evoke deep emotions across the Sikh community, and any fresh statement about them from the Gandhi family is read closely in Punjab. The Akali Dal has used the memoir row to renew its attack on the Congress, while the Congress has pointed to its leaders' visits to the Golden Temple as evidence of its respect for Sikh sentiment.

What happens next

The book releases on Tuesday, and more extracts and reactions are likely to follow as the memoir is read. The Akali Dal is expected to keep up its attack in Punjab, and the Congress will have to decide how far it goes in defending Sonia Gandhi's account. The row shows that more than four decades after 1984, the legacy of Operation Blue Star remains one of the most sensitive subjects in Indian politics.