In the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, BJP member Anurag Thakur asserted that during her tenure as prime minister in 1971, Indira Gandhi had asked the US to intervene in order to halt the conflict with Pakistan. Thakur claimed that although Indian troops prevailed in the 1971 conflict, “someone else” was named the Iron Lady.
He asserted that the war was lost at the negotiating table but won in the battlefield. Thakur quoted, in Zero Hour mention in the Lok Sabha.”If you dig a little deeper in history, the layers start unravelling. The then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had written to US President Nixon. It appears as though a supplicant was pleading before the US president.”
He read a letter from Gandhi to Nixon in which she pleaded with the US president to immediately stop Pakistan’s military adventurism and wanton aggressiveness. In reference to the letter dated December 5, 1971, Thakur stated, “The country must determine whether the government of that era was iron or an irony.” Members of Congress were standing up in protest over Thakur’s reference.
The former Union minister questioned whether Gandhi’s decision to ask the US to stop the war was a sign that he did not trust the military. In response to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s comments challenging the Narendra Modi government to exhibit even half the bravery displayed by Indira Gandhi during the 1971 war, Thakur remarked, “This family is adept at bending and begging the US to ask Pakistan to end the war.”
“Why did Indira Gandhi approach the US to end the war?” replied Thakur. According to him, Indira Gandhi had voiced her displeasure about Pakistan’s 1971 harmful propaganda campaign against India. “The Congress is indulging in the same malicious propaganda on behalf of Pakistan today,” Thakur stated.