Congress shares excerpts of Nehru's broadcast to counter PM's claim

NEW DELHI: To counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on Congress in his address in Assam on Sunday, Congress leader Pawan Khera put out a post on X sharing excerpts from India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru's broadcast to the nation on Nov 19, 1962, in which he spoke about the Chinese invasion of India .

Modi alleged on Sunday that "the wounds inflicted on the people of Assam by the policies of Nehru during the Chinese aggression in 1962 are yet to heal."

Khera lashed out at the PM in his post: "Here is Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru's Broadcast to the Nation on Nov 19 1962. Before lying to the people of Assam & North East, @PMOIndia will do well to ask someone to read it out to him. How much will Modi lie to shift the nation's attention from #VoteChori?"

The Congress leader shared in his post two pages of the English translation of the broadcast, in which, while speaking about the Chinese invasion and reflecting on the reverses and setbacks faced at that point in time, Nehru is quoted to have said, "I want to send my greetings to the people of Assam specially, to the people of North Eastern Frontier Agency, and to the rest of India, and to tell them that we must not get worried about this," adding "we shall not be content till that invader goes out of India or is pushed out."

"I can well understand what our friends in Assam must be feeling because all this is happening on their doorstep, one might say. I want to tell them that we feel very much for them and that we shall help them to the utmost of our ability,"

Nehru said. "I want to make a pledge to them, here and now, that we shall see this matter to the end and the end will have to be victory for India," he asserted.