This research will look at how the rhetoric, legal policy, and political correspondence between parties and their discourse with the wider national community was misinterpreted or misconstrued, leading to the horror of Operation Blue Star in Amritsar, India, in 1984. Significant research into the topic has suggested several explanations for Operation Blue Star; political debate, economic crisis, foreign intervention, religious persecution, and social distress to name just a few. However, this thesis will specifically examine how all the major parties involved misunderstood their opponent’s stance on key issues, creating a snowball effect that built up to the disaster of Operation Blue Star. Those parties include the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Indian National Congress party, the Khalistan movement leaders, and the infamous Sikh preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Primary sources include memoirs and accounts from historical actors, prominent newspaper magazines, government documents, and transcribed recordings of Bhindranwale’s speeches and conversations.