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This book was conceived when Jagtar Singh, as a journalist working with The Indian Express, went to the Darbar Sahib complex as part of the team of journalists from Chandigarh flown to the war zone by the government during Operation Bluestar, the army action in the Golden Temple complex at, the holiest of the holy shrine of the Sikhs at Amritsar. The holy Granth Sahib installed on the first floor of the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine was in disorder covered by a blood soaked white sheet. Placing the holy book in order was a trauma for the author.
Jagtar Singh had joined The Indian Express in 1978 a few days after the Sikh-Nirankari clash to which militancy in this state is traced, to be transferred to Amritsar in March the next year. This provided the opportunity to observe the situation virtually as in insider. Though returned to Chandigarh after two years, the author covered almost every major development in Amritsar till Operation Bluestar. The visits to Amritsar were frequent till militancy petered out. The author was witness to the rise of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with whom the interaction was frequent, most of the times off the record but such meetings provided the much needed deeper insight to the evolving situation. The last one-to-one off the record meeting lasting about an hour with him was on May 25 when the army had already moved into Punjab for the decisive action.
This book combines both the personal experience during the period Jagtar Singh worked with The Indian Express and the developments and their interpretation spanning about 25 years covering the two extremes in the Sikh political matrix. Some of the resource material relating to the Sikh politics is exclusive, appearing for the first time in this book.ISBN-9789350021248
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Pages : 520
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