In a post on X, Malviya claimed that Rajesh Pilot and Suresh Kalmadi were flying the IAF planes that bombed 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 North-East,” he said.
Hitting out at Malviya, Pilot said, “@amitmalviya – You have the wrong dates, wrong facts…Yes, as an IAF 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! Jai hind and a happy Independence Day,” Pilot said on X and shared the certificate according to which Rajesh Pilot was commissioned in the IAF on October 29, 1966.
Last week, Congress hit out at PM Narendra Modi for his criticism of Indira Gandhi’s decision to use the Indian Air Force in Mizoram in 1966, saying he “twisted decisions” taken by his predecessors out of their political and historical context to score “petty debating points”.
Responding to the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, Modi had referred to incidents such as the use of the Air Force to “attack the people in Mizoram”, a radio transmission of the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 leaving the people of the North-East to fend for themselves during the Chinese invasion as cases in point of Congress’ “neglect” of the region.