Dehradun: Congress leader Shri Rahul Gandhi on December 16, 2021, accused the BJP government of ignoring the role of the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi in the 1971 War (BLW) as India celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the victory. He addressed a rally in Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun as part of the year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of India’s victory over Pakistan in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 which included a large number of 1971 War Veterans and other military veterans.

Referring to his grandmother and the former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi he said, “She took 32 bullets for the country, but her name was not even mentioned at a government event in New Delhi on the anniversary of the victory over Pakistan.” “However, it does not make any difference because I know what she did for the country by giving her blood,” the Congress leader added.

He also said, “The credit for the 1971 War victory, which came in just 13 days, does not go exclusively to the Army, Navy or the political leadership of the day. It goes to the ‘United fight put up by Indians regardless of their caste or religion.’ Lakhs of families donated gold to the government of the day to strengthen the fight against Pakistan.”

“The country spoke in one voice and the America’s Seventh Fleet was forced to return. Usually, full scale wars take years to conclude. But India won the 1971 War in 13 days because it spoke in one voice,” he furthered.

He said that while travelling to Dehradun, he was thinking about what kind of relationship he has with Uttarakhand. He said, “The way thousands of families in Uttarakhand lose their kin battling for the country’s honour, my family too has made sacrifices. This is my relationship with Uttarakhand.”

“I thought of the few years I spent here as a student of the Doon School, during which I got a lot of your love. I was also reminded of two dates--October 31--when my grandmother became a martyr and--May 21--when my father was assassinated. And the word that struck me was ‘Sacrifice’. But families that have made no sacrifice for the nation cannot feel what it means to lose a father or an uncle,” he added.

He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that demonetization and the GST were the ‘Tools of the Capitalists’. He claimed that measures like the demonetization and the GST destroyed small and medium businessmen. He accused the PM of pulling out Rs. 10 lakh crores from people’s pockets and transferring them straight into the pockets of ‘handpicked billionaire capitalists who do his marketing.’

On rising inflation, he said, “Petrol and diesel prices had fallen in the international market but went up in an unprecedented way in the country due to highest tax on fuel.”

The former Congress President also criticized the Centre for not accepting the fact that 700 farmers died during the course of the agitation against the laws and refusing to pay compensations.

He said targeting the PM, “Take it from me, the youth in this country will not get jobs until the BJP government in New Delhi goes. If the Congress is voted to power, it will protect interests of farmers and unemployed youth.”

Heroes of the 1971 War, Army veterans and families who lost their kin fighting for the country were offered a memento and a shawl as a gesture of honour by the Congress leader, who shared the dais with them at the rally, the first by him ahead of the next year’s Assembly Elections in the state.