Had he as supreme commander resigned at that time, there would have been chaos and Sikhs would have suffered immensely. It was because of his decisio… - Zail Singh

A veteran of the Indian independence movement against Britain, he was personally popular for his earthy humor and political skills.

The chapter on this tragic episode [Operation Blue Star] is highly moving, reflecting the agony of a patriotic Sikh. No less a person than the President of India and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, he was given "not even an inkling beforehand.

In 1938 when he tried to set up a branch of the All India Congress in the state of Faridkot to spearhead the freedom movement, then a princely state under the British, he was proclaimed and treated as an ordinary criminal and sentenced to five years solitary confinement.