Fifty two years after the 1962 Sino-Indian war, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's role in it is still debated in Assam.
After Nehru's speech on All India Radio (AIR) following the fall of Bomdila to the Chinese, many in Assam's Tezpur felt he was not concerned about the Brahmaputra Valley. Some veteran Congressmen though believes the people of Assam misunderstood Nehru.
In his address to the nation on AIR on November 20, 1962, Nehru said, "Huge Chinese army invaded our country in to the northern part of NEFA. They attacked our army fronts, there was a severe war. Large number of army was installed into the borders by Chinese as a result our smaller forces were defeated."
People in the north eastern states of India were disturbed by this speech of Nehru as our army was defeated at NEFA (North Eastern Frontier Agency) and few notable reactions of common man and political figure’s were:
The speech changed Saikia's perception of New Delhi. "I strongly feel Assam would not have got that much of importance from the Centre had the India-China war not taken place," said Saikia.
Veteran Congress leader Bedabrata Barua said Nehru was almost weeping when he spoke after the capture of Bomdila. "I remember Nehru speaking this and he has a choked voice. But I was very confident that the Chinese would not enter Assam. Had they attacked Assam, the course of the war would have taken a different turn. Possibly, other countries would have come to India's aid to stop the marauding Chinese soldiers," said Barua.
Nalini Deka, a retired school teacher in Tezpur, said, "I was very young then. Someone explained to me Nehru's speech. I realized if the prime minister of the country was so helpless, how could the common people withstand an attack by the Chinese? We were left in the lurch after the speech."
Atul Saikia (77), a resident of Dekargaon in Tezpur, said, "Assam was almost given away to China when Jawarhar lal Nheru, in his speech after the capture of NEFA, announced on the radio."
After Nehru's speech was broadcast, people in Tezpur became hysteric. "They began fleeing. There was chaos everywhere," said Pranab Sinha (71) of Tezpur.
Surely this AIR speech by our former Prime Minister showcased our inability to fight against China during those days. This AIR speech also made it clear that the 5 peace plans between Indo-China was a failure.