Beant Singh

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Beant Singh (born January 6, 1959 in Faridkot , Punjab , † October 31, 1984 in New Delhi ) was a bodyguard of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi , whom he murdered on October 31, 1984 together with his colleague Satwant Singh . The reason for the act was Operation Blue Star , in which Indira Gandhi used violence against the Sikhist minority to which the two bodyguards belonged.

Life

Singh comes from the Faridkot district in Punjab, India. There the Sikhs are not a minority, but make up the majority with 76% of the population. Singh placed himself in the service of the Indian army and joined an elite group there, which was among other things entrusted with protecting the prime minister. Due to their reputation as loyal and good soldiers, the number of Sikhs in the Indian army and also in the group of bodyguards Indira Gandhi was high. Operation Blue Star and the violence against Sikh - Sikhist sources speak of more than 5,000 victims in the context of Operation Blue Star - were also perceived by the attackers as a deep turning point and fueled their hatred of the Prime Minister.

Gandhi had previously been urged by her advisors to temporarily remove Sikhs from their bodyguards, as the conflict between the government and the Sikhs posed an increased risk of assassinations . Gandhi rejected this proposal, citing the secular nature of the Indian state.

Garments worn by Gandhi on the day of the assassination in the Indira Gandhi Memorial Museum

The assassination

On October 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi had an appointment with Peter Ustinov for an interview for British television. She left her home that morning to walk to the neighboring building where the interview was to take place. At the garden gate she was expected by her bodyguard Beant Singh, who shot her three bullets in the abdomen. His accomplice Satwant Singh fired his entire magazine of thirty shots at Indira Gandhi. Immediately after the attack, both were arrested by security forces and taken to a guard building. There, after an attempt to escape, there was a shooting in which Beant Singh died on the spot.

consequences

The assassins quickly became figures of identification for extremist Sikh groups. After the attack, there were expressions of solidarity and memorial events for the attackers in Amritsar . The official honoring of the assassins as martyrs for the Sikhs in January 2008 caused controversy .

Beant Singh's wife was later elected to the Lok Sabha , the first chamber of the Indian parliament. His son ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and went into the real estate sector. In 2009 he gave an interview in which he described the attack as "the result of intense feelings that my father had suffered" .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ - 20 years ago: Assassination attempt on Indira Gandhi. Retrieved on August 10, 2019 (German).
  2. ^ William E. Smith: Indira Gandhi: Death in the Garden . In: Time . November 12, 1984, ISSN  0040-781X ( time.com [accessed August 10, 2019]).
  3. ^ The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Punjab. Retrieved August 10, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Indira Gandhi killers labeled martyrs . In: The Hindu . January 7, 2008, ISSN  0971-751X ( thehindu.com [accessed August 10, 2019]).
  5. ↑ 'Father didn't kill Indira Gandhi to make Sikhs happy': Beant Singh's son: MyNews.in. March 5, 2014, accessed August 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Singh, Beant
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian bodyguard and assassin
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Faridkot , Punjab
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1984
Place of death New Delhi