The confrontation follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of former PM Indira Gandhi’s choice to use the IAF in Mizoram in 1966.
Congress chief and former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Tuesday responded to BJP IT division head Amit Malviya’s claim that his father Rajesh Pilot dropped bombs as an air pressure pilot in Mizoram in March 1966. Pilot mentioned that the information and dates are improper as he was commissioned into the pressure in October that 12 months.
Malviya had earlier in a submit on X (previously Twitter) claimed that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi have been flying missions in Indian Air Force planes that bombed Mizoram capital Aizawl on March 5, 1966.
“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, gave respect to those who carried out air raids on their own people in the Northeast,” Malviya mentioned within the submit in Hindi.
Pilot hit out on the BJP chief saying, “@amitmalviya – You have the wrong dates, wrong facts…Yes, as an Indian Air Force pilot, my late father did drop bombs. But that was on erstwhile East Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pak war and not as you claim, on Mizoram on the 5th of March 1966.”
“He was commissioned into the IAF only on 29th October 1966! (Certificate attached). Jai hind and a happy Independence Day,” Pilot reacted on X, sharing a certificate which stated that Rajesh Pilot was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on October 29, 1966.
The war of words follows Congress slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week over his criticism of former PM Indira Gandhi’s decision to use the IAF in Mizoram in 1966. PM Modi, while responding to the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, had referred to incidents such as the use of the Air Force to “attack the people in Mizoram”, a radio transmission from former PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 leaving the folks within the northeast to themselves in the course of the Chinese invasion to make a case that Congress had “neglected” the area.
(Inputs from PTI)
