This exactly happened with Congress.
In 1977 elections, Congress party led by Indira Gandhi got defeated in Punjab and Akali Dal formed the government under the leadership of Prakash Singh Badal. Congress in order to restore power decided to bring prominent faces who would help them to rise again.
Gyani Zail Singh and Sanjay Gandhi, two Congress leaders chose Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
So how did it affect Congress so badly that it proved to be the worst nightmare for Congress itself?
Let's get into this....
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was the fourteenth jathedar or leader of the prominent orthodox Sikh religious institution Damdani Taksal. He gained national attention after his involvement in the 1978 Sikh Nirankari clash.
Soon, Bhindranwale rose to be the leader of the Sikh militancy group. Bhindranwale joined hands with Akali Dal and launched Dharam Yuddha Morcha in 1982 to fulfill their demands of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. This was to make Punjab, a semi autonomous and a federal state of India.
This way, Congress realised that Bhindranwale now, could not be controlled and his actions would effect their functioning. In 1983, to evade arrest, Bhindranwale occupied and fortified Akali Takht and made the Harminder Sahib complex, the holy shrine of Sikhs called Golden Temple as their headquarters. It is said that he had a strong backing of Major General Shabeg Khan and Amrik Singh.
The militant group was there in the temple with arms and ammunitions. They were getting regular supply of weapons which came to be known when one day, a truck loaded with food for langar was inspected randomly and large number of weapons were found.
Two school of thoughts
1) It was said that these supplies were coming from Pakistan who was trying to threaten the internal security in India.
2) Other was the Operation Kontakt which was sent by Russia. It is said that Russia, through this operation was trying to spread false information to Indira Gandhi, that Pakistan is behind all the supplies of weapons to the members of Pro Khalistani movement. And this worked, as Indira Gandhi believed and launched Operation Blue Star.
After various rounds of negotiations, which proved to be futile, Operation Blue Star was launched on 1 June, 1984 in the Harminder Sahib complex in Amritsar.
[According to General SK Sinha, Indira Gandhi had been considering the Operation for more than 18 months prior, authorizing army preparation for it long before any insurgents were in the complex.]
The operation led to 83 deaths and left 249 injured. According to the government high civilian casualties were attributed to militants using pilgrims trapped inside the temple as human shields. However, the Indian Army had allowed thousands of pilgrims and protestors to enter the temple complex and prevented them from leaving after imposing a curfew on the same day.
The military actions in the temple complex was criticized by Sikhs worldwide, who interpreted it as an assault on the Sikh religion. They call the operation as the Teesra Ghallughara (Holocaust).
Five months after Operation Blue Star, on 31 October, 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated in an act of revenge by her two Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.
Indira Gandhi
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