Amritsar: Billboards welcome tourists on roads leading to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest place for Sikhs. It is a symbol of peace and it is always festive here. But it was not so three decades back.
On June 6, 1984, the area near the Golden Temple was under curfew with shoot at sight orders. The demand for Khalistan had reached its peak during operation Blue Star and carried on for many years thereafter. It was on this day that tanks were rolled into the temple complex on the orders of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to flush out terrorists led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Even as the physical damage to the shrine has been repaired, the scars do not seem to have healed properly.
"I still think 30 years have passed but it is like yesterday. Those wounds have still not been filled. It was a black day," said Ashwani Kumar, a trader.
The army operation to flush out militants left the Golden Temple in ruins shocked many. But 30 years on, the demand for Khalistan has few takers as Ajay Vir Singh, a local resident said, "the demand for Khalistan.. according to my generation should not be an issue today."
But there are still some who remain committed to a separate land for the Sikhs. With support from patrons abroad, Dal Khalsa, a radical Sikh organisation continues to keep the fire alive.
"Sikhs were fighting for self determination. It was a political problem, but ironically the Indian state found a military solution to a political problem. The wounds of 1984 are still simmering," said Kanwar Pal Singh of Dal Khalsa.
The internet and social media is lending new avenues to some disgruntled youth who fall back on the Khalistan demand every time they are angry with the state over issues like unemployment.
"The demand is there in the hearts of Sikhs for Khalistan," asserts Prabhjeet Singh of Damdami Taksal.
The demand for Khalistan has all but disappeared, but what has endured is a lingering feeling of regret over the use of a military solution for a political problem.
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