OPERATION BLUESTAR

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OPERATION BLUESTAR

• 1984
• The Massacre of Sikhs

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WHAT was Operation Bluestar?

• June 3 to June 6, 1984 was an Indian military
  operation at the Harimandir Sahib in Amritsar,
  Punjab, the holiest temple of the Sikhs.
• Preplanned attack on supposed Sikh terrorists
• However, innocent lives were taken
• -men, women, and children were beaten and shot
  and thrown into the Holy Sarover

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WHY

• to rid India of terrorists
• the fundamentalist Indian government was scared
  because the Sikhs were asking too many questions
• Freedom/Rights
• Equality
• Justice
• Broken promises

4
Freedom/Rights

• False democratic system
• -govt didnt work for all people, only the rich
• -caste system is illegal, yet still practiced
• Basic needs not met
• -water
• -electricity
• Taking money from working people

5
Water is a Human Right

• Water is essential to sustain life. It is
  enshrined in the right to life and dignity, as
  set forth in the International Bill of Human
  Rights. In 2002, the United Nations adopted water
  as a human right. This adoption commits the 145
  countries that have ratified the International
  Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  to gradually ensure fair and non-discriminatory
  access to safe drinking water.

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Equality

• Guru Nanak Dev Jis first teaching was to treat
  all human beings as equals
• The Indian govt did NOT treat everyone equally
• The Sikhs believed that not only should they be
  treated fairly, but also their brothers and
  sisters from other faiths
• The Sikhs questioned the govt and the govt
  didnt like that

7
Justice

• Sikh men being killed in fake police encounters
• Corruption within Indian government
• Police paid off by rich people to lie
• Wrongful convictions against Sikhs

8
Broken Promises

• What does it truly mean to be democratic?
• Democracy- government by the people a form of
  government in which the supreme power is vested
  in the people and exercised directly by them or
  by their elected agents under a free electoral
  system
• -by the people, FOR the people

• The Indian government is not a true democratic
  system
• Caste system
• Untouchables
• Trapped in system
• Sikhs wanted justice for everyone silenced

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Personal Accounts
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WHAT happened AFTER?

• October 31, 1984 
• 9.20 am Indira Gandhi was shot by two of her
  security guards at her residence No. 1,
  Safdarjung Road, and rushed to All India
  Institute of Medical Sciences. 
• 11 am Announcement on All India Radio specifying
  that the guards who shot Indira Gandhi were
  Sikhs.
• 4 pm Stray incidents of attacks on Sikhs in and
  around that area. 
• Late evening and night The violence against
  Sikhs spread.The violence included the burning of
  vehicles and other properties of Sikhs. That
  happened even in VIP areas like the crossroads
  near Prithviraj Road where cars and scooters
  belonging to Sikhs were burnt. 

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No Protection for Innocent

• Every police station had a strength of about 100
  men and 50-60 weapons. Yet, no action was taken
  against miscreants in most places. The few places
  where the local police station took prompt
  measures against mobs, hardly any killings took
  place there.
• All the Sikhs who fired in self-defence were
  disarmed by the police and even arrested on
  trumped up charges.