Thakur: Indira Sought US Intervention in 1971 to Stop War With Pak

New Delhi: Former Union minister and BJP MP Anurag Thakur claimed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had sought US intervention to stop the 1971 war with Pakistan. Another BJP MP, Nishikant Dubey, accused the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, of using “distorted and inaccurate facts” when referencing Indira Gandhi’s conduct of that war, and urged Speaker Om Birla to reprimand him for his “habitual delinquency.”

During Zero Hour, Thakur asserted that although Indian soldiers won the 1971 war on the battlefield, the outcome was lost at the negotiating table, and yet someone else was declared the “Iron Lady.” “If you dig a little deeper in history, the layers start unravelling,” he said, reading from a December 5, 1971 letter in which Indira Gandhi urged President Nixon to persuade Pakistan to desist from “wanton aggression and military adventurism.” “It appears as though a supplicant was pleading before the US President,” he added. “The nation must decide whether the government of that day was iron or an irony.”

Congress members protested as Thakur questioned whether Indira Gandhi had trusted India’s armed forces or instead “pleaded with the US to halt the war.” He accused her family of “bending and begging” Washington to ask Pakistan to end hostilities and contrasted this with Gandhi’s recent challenge to the Modi government to match Indira Gandhi’s wartime courage.

Separately, in a letter to the Speaker, Dubey demanded a show-cause notice for Rahul Gandhi’s “questionable utterances,” and sought permission to raise the matter in the House. He annexed the same December 5, 1971 letter, accusing Rahul Gandhi of “rumour-mongering,” “incessant lies,” and “distorting historical facts” both in Parliament and in court. “It is a matter of serious concern for our vibrant democracy that Rahul Gandhi has lowered the dignity of the Leader of the Opposition by presenting distorted and inaccurate facts,” Dubey charged, calling it a violation of the Speaker’s directions.