DEHRADUN/NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday slammed the government for not mentioning the name of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi under whose leadership east Pakistan was liberated as Bangladesh 50 years ago.
Addressing the Vijay Samman Rally in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, Rahul Gandhi tore into the BJP and said, “Today a programme was organised in Delhi on the Bangladesh War and in that function there was no mention of Indira Gandhi.”
Hailing the role of her grandmother, who was also the then Prime Minister of India, the Congress leader said, “The woman who took 32 bullets for the country was not mentioned and even her name was not mentioned on the invitation cards.”
He said that it was because the government is “scared of the truth”.
“I don’t have any problem with names as I know what Indira Gandhi has done by giving her blood for the country,” Rahul Gandhi said.
The government has organised several events to mark the 50th year of Bangladesh Liberation War. However, it failed to mention the name of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who led from the front.
Even Priyanka Gandhi, who is Congress general secretary and in-charge for Uttar Pradesh in a series of tweets slammed the government and said, “Our first and only woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi is being left out of the misogynist BJP government’s Vijay Diwas celebrations. This, on the 50th anniversary of the day that she led India to victory and liberated Bangladesh.”
In another tweet, Priyanka Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, “Narendra Modiji, women don’t believe your platitudes. Your patronising attitude is unacceptable. It’s about time you start giving women their due.”
On Wednesday, while speaking at the Jwahar Bhawan at the closing ceremony of Congress’ 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war, former Defence Minister AK Antony too slammed the government and said that after the victory in 1971, the entire Parliament hailed and praised Indira Gandhi. “Even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in Lok Sabha and he too hailed Indira Gandhi and called her Durga while many opposition leaders hailed her as Shakti.”
Antony further said that when we celebrated 50 years of Bangladesh Liberation in the last one year, the present government has not said a sentence to praise Indira Gandhi’s role. “I feel sorry about that and I would not say anything more,” he added.