Rajasthan Congress leader Sachin Pilot hit out at BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya, who claimed that Pilot’s father Rajesh Pilot had dropped a bomb in Mizoram’s capital Aizawl in 1966.
On X, formerly Twitter, Malviya, sharing a clip from a news channel, wrote, “Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi were flying the Indian Air Force planes that bombed Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, on 5 March 1966. Later both became MPs on Congress tickets and ministers in the government.”
“It is clear that Indira Gandhi gave respect and a place in politics as a reward to those who carried out air raids on their own people in the North East,” Malviya said.
Responding to his allegations, Pilot reposting his tweet, said that he had provided “wrong dates, wrong facts”.
“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!” Pilot wrote.
Pilot also attached the appointment certificate of his father Rajeshwar Prasad, better known as Rajesh Pilot, which was signed by then-President VV Giri. He was appointed as a Pilot Officer in the Indian Air Force.
Giri was the President of India from August 24, 1969, to August 24, 1974, and the certificate was given to Rajesh Pilot on February 10, 1970.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his reply to the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha, had said that then PM Indira Gandhi had used the IAF against Mizoram. “On March 5, 1966, Congress dropped bombs on helpless citizens in Mizoram through its Air Force. Congress should answer if it was the Air Force of any other country. Were the people of Mizoram not the people of our country? Was their security not the responsibility of the Indian government? Till this day, Mizoram observes mourning on March 5. It is unable to forget that pain,” PM Modi had said.
Responding to this, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh, said that PM Modi “twisted” decisions taken by his predecessors out of their political and historical context to score “petty” debating points.
“His 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,” Ramesh wrote.