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What Indira Gandhi said when asked about conquering Pakistan post 1971 war
In the undated interview, Gandhi eloquently explains India's foreign policy, which she says has the idea of friendship on its core.
Amid claims of former CIA officer Richard Barlow saying that former Indira Gandhi refused to bomb Pakistan’s Kahuta nuclear facility in the early 1980s, a video of the former Indian prime minister has resurfaced on the internet where she says “we don't believe in conquering people” in response to a question on conquering Pakistan post the 1971 war.
Gandhi goes on to eloquently explain India's foreign policy, which she says has the idea of friendship at its core. “We don't want to conquer but we do want friendship with everybody. In fact, we define our foreign policy as increasing friendship where it exists, trying to create it where it does not exist and where there is hostility try and blunt it,” she says in an undated interview where she says that India has accepted the fact of Pakistan.
On the question of conquering Pakistan, Gandhi replies that cites the problems created by the violent partition that claimed millions of lives, displaced millions and left scores of families divided on both sides of the border.
“Our policy always has been to have friendship because because we believe that our problems are complementary. They are not in conflict and if we were to cooperate in solving them, it would strengthen both the countries,” she says.
She denies having any expansionist aspirations saying that it would be wrong to say that India can “swallow up” it's neighbours because India is a bigger country. “Throughout the history we have never raised arms any of our neighbouring countries. There have been internal fights but never outside our borders and this policy continues,” she says.
Meanwhile, former CIA official's claims on Indira's soft stance against Pakistan have created ripples in Indi as he dubbed her decision a “shame”. He was speaking in an interview with news agency ANI, when he said that the operation was intended to halt Islamabad’s atomic ambitions.
Richard Barlow, who served as a counterproliferation officer in the CIA during Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear development, said he had heard about the plan in intelligence circles but was not directly involved. “I heard about it at some point. But I didn’t get my teeth into it because it never happened,” he added.
The Kahuta enrichment facility, established under the direction of Pakistan’s nuclear architect AQ Khan, later became central to Pakistan’s successful pursuit of nuclear weapons, culminating in its first atomic tests in 1998. Earlier, US President Donald Trump told CBS News’s 60 Minutes that while the United States has avoided nuclear testing for more than three decades, several countries, including Pakistan, continue to conduct underground nuclear trials.
