Guwahati, May 14: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that if former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi were alive today, he would have questioned her for not reclaiming Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the Shimla Agreement or negotiating for an extension of the Chicken’s Neck corridor after India’s victory in the 1971 war.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Sarma asserted that the Congress has no moral authority to question Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the recent ceasefire with Pakistan.
“Our army had won the 1971 war. If Indira Gandhi were alive, I would ask her why she allowed the creation of an Islamic republic next door. Why didn’t she use that opportunity to take back PoK? Why didn’t she negotiate for an additional 100 kilometres from Bangladesh to expand the Chicken’s Neck corridor and strengthen Northeast India’s connectivity?” Sarma said.
He alleged that Gandhi converted a military victory into personal political capital to project herself as a “secular leader”.
“They (Pakistan) had surrendered. That was the time to press demands — the return of PoK, access to Chittagong port, and resolving the bottleneck at Chicken’s Neck. But did the Congress government do anything?” he asked.
However, responding to Sarma’s remarks, Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi questioned the selective criticism of Gandhi’s legacy. “If she failed us, why did both the RSS and the patriarch of BJP, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, praise her as the incarnation of ‘Durga’ in 1971?” Bordoloi said, referring to the widespread admiration Gandhi received across party lines following the decisive victory in the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Defending the Modi government’s handling of the current crisis, Sarma said the goal of Operation Sindoor — to destroy terrorist infrastructure — was successfully met by the night of May 6 and the morning of May 7.
“Pakistan retaliated on behalf of terrorists, and India responded with strength. When they realised continuing the fight would lead to complete devastation, they backed down and contacted our DGMO,” he said.
Sarma questioned whether the Congress, had they been in power, would have continued military action even after Pakistan signalled a retreat.
“Congress should clarify — after Pakistan’s DGMO reached out, should we have kept fighting? And what did they do when Pakistani terrorists repeatedly attacked India under their rule?” he said.
The Assam Chief Minister stressed that the war was not against Pakistani civilians but against terrorism, echoing PM Modi’s recent statement in Bihar.
“After neutralising 150 terrorists on Pakistani soil, our mission is complete,” he claimed.
Sarma urged the Congress to reflect on Indira Gandhi’s post-1971 decisions rather than criticizing the present government.
Also Read: ‘Terror will now be answered with total annihilation’: Modi at Adampur
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