Lok Sabha: Modi reminds Congress of Indira’s aerial bombing of Mizoram | India News

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Thursday recalled the bombing of Mizoram by the Indian Air Force in 1966 to accuse Congress of being the root of the problems the North-East region faced for decades.

“On March 5, 1966, innocent civilians were attacked by the Indian Air Force. Imagine getting our own air force to attack our fellow citizens. Was their security not the responsibility of the government of India? Who was in power at the time?” Modi asked before proceeding to volunteer the answer, “Indira Gandhi“.
“March 5 is still remembered as a day of mourning in Mizoram,” Modi said, putting the spotlight on an episode which has not been talked about much because of the unpleasantness surrounding it.

“This has been concealed from people,” the PM said, adding that Indira Gandhi’s action turned out to be a dress rehearsal for “sending the Army to Akal Takht”.
This was a rare reference to Operation Blue Star, with Modi appearing to disapprove of the decision to send the Army to the holiest of Sikh shrines where Khalistanis had holed up. “It was in Mizoram that Indira ji acquired the habit of using the Army against our own people. And they are preaching to us,” the PM said.
He also recalled former PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s scary radio broadcast of 1962 where he had appeared to have given up on Assam after Chinese invaders, after overrunning an entire stretch of the north-east, seemed to be within striking distance of Guwahati. “Nehru ji’s line ‘our heart goes out for Assam’ in 1962 rankles us even now. It reminds us that we left our people to fend for themselves,” he said.
Modi also took a dig at those who identify themselves as followers of socialist ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia and have signed up for the ‘INDIA’ bloc as Congress’s allies. He cited Lohia’s criticism of Nehru for deliberately ignoring the development of the North-East. “This callousness is going to cost dear. A big population has been consigned to cold storage,” Modi quoted from Lohia’s attack in what appeared to be a dig at JD(U) and Samajwadi Party.
Modi went on to contrast the Nehruvian approach towards the North-East with the sustained engagement of his government and said “north-east lives in our heart”.
The PM also said it was the Indira government which gave Katchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka in 1974. The island, located between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka, was traditionally used by both Sri Lankan and Indian fishermen. In 1974, Indira Gandhi accepted Katchatheevu as Sri Lankan territory under the ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime Agreement’.
Modi said the DMK government in Tamil Nadu keeps writing to him urging to bring Katchatheevu back to India.