Editing Khalistan movement (section)

====Operation Blue Star and impact====
In later disclosures from former special secretary G.B.S. Sidhu of the [[Research and Analysis Wing]] (R&AW), the foreign-intelligence agency of India, R&AW itself helped "build the Khalistan legend," actively participating in the planning of [[Operation Blue Star]]. While posted in [[Ottawa]], Canada in 1976 to look into the "Khalistan problem" among the Sikh diaspora, Sidhu found "nothing amiss" during the three years he was there,<ref name=dulat>{{cite news |last1=Dulat |first1=A. S. |author-link=A. S. Dulat |title=Genesis of tumultuous period in Punjab |url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/reviews/story/genesis-of-tumultuous-period-in-punjab-183639 |website=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]] |location=Chandigarh, India |access-date=13 June 2021 |date=13 December 2020 |quote=Bhindranwale never raised the demand for Khalistan or went beyond the Akali Anandpur Sahib Resolution, while he himself was prepared for negotiations to the very end. |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624195655/https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/reviews/story/genesis-of-tumultuous-period-in-punjab-183639 |url-status=live }}</ref> stating that "Delhi was unnecessarily making a mountain of a molehill where none existed," that the agency created seven posts in West Europe and North America in 1981 to counter non-existent Khalistan activities, and that the deployed officers were "not always familiar with the Sikhs or the Punjab issue."<ref name=dulat/> He described the secessionist movement as a "chimera" until the army operation, after which the insurgency would start.<ref name=dulat/>

According to a ''New York Times'' article written just a few weeks after the operation, "Before the raid on the Golden Temple, neither the Government nor anyone else appeared to put much credence in the Khalistan movement. Mr. Bhindranwale himself said many times that he was not seeking an independent country for Sikhs, merely greater autonomy for Punjab within the Indian Union.... One possible explanation advanced for the Government's raising of the Khalistan question is that it needs to take every opportunity to justify the killing in Amritsar and the invasion of the Sikhs' holiest shrine."<ref name=stevens>{{cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=William K. |title=Punjab Raid: Unanswered Questions |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/19/world/punjab-raid-unanswered-questions.html |access-date=12 June 2021 |work=The News York Times |date=19 June 1984 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624205941/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/19/world/punjab-raid-unanswered-questions.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Khushwant Singh had written that "considerable Khalistan sentiment seems to have arisen since the raid on the temple, which many Sikhs, if not most, have taken as a deep offense to their religion and their sensibilities," referring to the drastic change in community sentiments after the army attack.<ref name=stevens/>