1/n note, this piece only talks about how the Frankenstein named Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (JSB) was created by Sanjay Gandhi and Giani Zail Singhi. It does not touch on the whole Khalistani movement which would require a seperate write up on it's own.
2/n The primary party in Punjab was the Congress, but over time opposition arose in the form of the Akali Dal. The Akali Dal was primarily a Sikh party which took a hardline stance when it came to Punjab.
3/n The people of Punjab, sick and tired of the corruption and inefficiency of the Congress found in the AD a solid electoral alternative.
Things came to a head in 1977 when the AD+JP alliance swept into power and ordered investigations into corruption by
4/n the previous (and soon to be President) Giani Zial Singh who is in a way, the true villain of the story.
Sanjay Gandhi and Giani (mostly Giani) decided they needed a hardline front to combat AD and split the anti Congress votes and hence Bhindranwale was born.
5/n He was actually funded in his early days by Sanjay Gandhi. JSB was a broke preacher and Sanjay funded via Giani his early political rallies, travel etc.
Giani then decided to create a political structure around the religious leader (then mostly unknown) that was JSB,
6/n so from the shadows he created the Dal. Khalsa (again funded by Sanjay and Giani), he then used the Dal Khalsa to issue what is known as the Anandpur proclamation which asked for a lot of liberties for Punjab (not going into the details of this here),
7/n This achieved two things. It embarassed the ruling Akali Dal government - they could not say anything against as it would cut into their popularity, but neither they could stand by silently as this was seen as a direct challenge posed to the Indian establishment.
8/n 2nd, it gave JSB a solid and ready made platform. JSB by now had risen in popularity and made the Anantpur declaration as his clarion call to rally the masses of Punjab. He went from strength to strength and overshadowed the Akalis+ the INc.
9/n In all this he was protected by Giani (who by now was the home minister), he was to have been arrested on multiple occassions for murder charges, but every single time Giani would step up and squash the investigation while absolving Bhindranwale of any crimes.
10/n Fast forward to 1984, JSB became so powerful that he ran a parallel state in Punjab,this did not sit well with Indira who ordered Blue Star.
1 fallout of this whole sordid mess was that the Khalistani movement which wasn't that strong in Punjab till then, really took
11/n the collusion was so horrific that when JSB was in Mumbai there was a raid by Punjab + Mumbai cops to capture him, he was personally tipped off by Giani Zial Singh, the actual fucking home minister. Can you imagine how bad the rot
Pappu, we will #neverforgetneverforgive