Nehru let NE down during 1962 War: Rijiju

As reported in 'The Assam Tribune' : HYDERABAD, Oct 31 - Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today attacked the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru for “letting the people of the North-east region down” during the 1962 Indo-China War, while accusing the Congress of “forgetting” the “true heroes,” Subhash Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. “After 1947, more than 565 princely states were brought together by Sardar Patel, but he did not get credit; those who failed, they kept on writing history,” the Minister of State for Home, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, said at a function organised by the BJP on the occasion of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Jayanti celebrations here. He said the Chinese seized his village during the war in 1962 and reached even up to Assam, while Nehru assured the people of the region, then known as the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), that “we will save you,” but later announced “surrender” to the Chinese on All India Radio and “he (Nehru) said tata, bye, bye and left us.” Rijiju said the patriotic people of the region, however, asserted at the time that India need not surrender and “we will not leave India and stood unitedly to remain with India”. “It is a matter of regret that our Prime Minister left us (let us down). Patel united the country; the other Prime Minister (Nehru) left the country, surrendered the country,” the Minister said. “This is history,” he said, alleging the Congress “kept the true history under wraps, kept praising itself and did not take the country in the right direction”. The Minister said most people were even kept in dark about October 31 being the birth anniversary of Patel by the Congress during its regime at the Centre. He termed it an “injustice” and a “big sin” against the ‘Iron Man of India.’ Rijiju said many people are not able to digest the fact that the country now has a strong Prime Minister and government and they are engaged in unleashing “manufactured stories” against the Centre, claiming a threat to the secular fabric of the country. – PTI