As the Sikh community across the UK awaits the long-promised inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the June 1984 attack on the Harmandir Sahib—widely known as the Golden Temple in Amritsar—we reflect on the events that have brought us to this moment.
In 2014, the thirtieth anniversary of the events of 1984, the National Archives in the UK made public government records under the ‘30-year rule’ that revealed how Margaret Thatcher’s government had secretly lent the assistance of a Special Air Service (SAS) officer to the Indian government to advise on plans to flush out Sikh dissidents from the Golden Temple complex.
The declassified records would also furnish evidence of the extent to which the Thatcher administration was prepared to go to ensure the stability of trading arrangements with India were not jeopardised by protests in the UK over the massacres. In response to concerns raised by British Sikhs, Prime Minister David Cameron took the decision in January 2014 to instruct his cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to conduct an urgent investigation into the alleged British role in the 1984 Golden Temple attack.
Sir Jeremy Heywood’s investigation into Britain’s role in Operation Blue Star ran for a little over two weeks. Limiting his search to the events leading up to the attack, between December 1983 and June 1984, his team scoured 200 files containing in excess of 23,000 documents. The events of November 1984 and beyond were outside the scope of his remit.
In his report to Prime Minister David Cameron in February 2014 he stated that the Ministry of Defence had routinely destroyed several military files on various operations in November 2009, including one on ‘the provision of military advice to the Indian authorities on their contingency plans for the temple complex’.
However, copies of ‘at least some of documents on the destroyed files’ were found in other departmental files, which allowed him to form a ‘consistent picture of what happened’. His assessment of the available material led him to conclude that assistance had been ‘advisory’ and given several months before the attack took place. The Indian government had appealed to the British government for help to wrest control of the Golden Temple complex from Sikh militants. In February 1984, an unnamed British military adviser had been sent to India and recommended that an attack should be the last resort, only if all negotiations had failed. The adviser advocated using the element of surprise and helicopters – neither of which featured in the final operation. No equipment, tactical intelligence or training were offered.
The investigation was criticised by Sikh groups for its lack of transparency and narrow focus. Other files, including several that potentially reveal a far greater role played by the SAS in crushing Sikh dissent following Operation Blue Star, were withdrawn from The National Archives by the FCO in the summer of 2016.
Since then, the National Union of Journalists, Declassified UK and Sikh organisations have been calling for full disclosure into the events of 1984 and the setting up of an inquiry to delve into the tragic events that led to thousands dead.
Read more: Labour government ‘considering’ launching inquiry into UK’s involvement in 1984 Golden Temple assault