A sign of truce seemed in Rajasthan Congress ahead of the assembly election as CM Ashok Gehlot backed Sachin Pilot after the opposition BJP targeted the latter’s father.
Gehlot stood up in defence of Pilot who has been attacked by the BJP over claims that his father Rajesh Pilotn dropped bombs on Mizoram people as an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot in March 1966.
BJP social media cell chief Amit Malviya posted on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter), that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi flew IAF jets that bombed Aizawl (Mizoram’s capital) in 1966.
Malviya added, “Later both became MPs on Congress tickets and ministers in the government. It is clear that Indira Gandhi gave a place in politics as a reward, and gave respect to those who carried out air raids on their own people in the Northeast”.
Malviya’s attack has come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress party and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the Monsoon Session of Parliament where he said in Hindi, “Congress has always mishandled northeast…Indira Gandhi used the IAF to attack the people of Mizoram”.
Following Malviya’s tweet, Gehlot wrote on the X platform that Rajesh Pilot was a brave pilot of the Indian Air Force. “By insulting him, the BJP is insulting the sacrifice of the Indian Air Force. The whole country should condemn this,” the chief minister and senior Congress leader said.
Sachin Pilot also hit at Malviya on X, saying the facts and dates are wrong as his father was commissioned into the force in October of that year. He also shared the certificate according to which Rajesh Pilot was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on October 29, 1966.
Earlier Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh lashed out at PM Modi over his Parliament’s speech. Ramesh said that the prime minister’s speech revealed the influence of “mischievous distorians on his thinking”.
“He twisted decisions taken by his predecessors out of their political and historical context. He did it only to score petty debating points. This is perhaps only to be expected from someone who claims to be a MA in Entire Political Science,” Ramesh said.
Modi’s criticism of Indira Gandhi’s extraordinarily tough decision of March 1966 in Mizoram to deal with secessionist forces that drew support from Pakistan and China was “particularly pathetic”, the Congress leader said on X, formerly known as Twitter.