Amit Malviya’s tweet brings Gehlot-Pilot together in Rajasthan

BJP IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya’s tweet that former union minister and senior Congress leader Rajesh Pilot was one of the Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots, who had ‘bombed’ Mizroam’s capitol Aizwal in 1966, may have come as a blessing in disguise for the Congress in Rajasthan, where assembly poll is scheduled in November/December, by bringing together the Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot factions together.

For a change, the leaders from both Gehlot and Sachin Pilot’s camps have decried Malviya’s tweet and demanded registration of a case against the BJP leader.

The tweet by Malviya also threatens to become an issue in the forthcoming assembly poll with both Gehlot and Sachin terming the tweet as ‘disrespecting’ the IAF.

‘’Rajesh Pilot was a brave IAF pilot….by disrespecting him, the BJP is humiliating the entire IAF…it should be condemned,’’ Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said in a statement.

Rajesh Pilot’s son Sachin Pilot had also condemned the BJP leader’s tweet saying that his father had been commissioned in the IAF in October 1966 and therefore he could not have bombed Aizwal in March 1966 as claimed by Malviya.

The controversy started after prime minister Narendra Modi, while making a reply on the opposition sponsored no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha recently, accused the former prime minister Indira Gandhi of ordering bombing on Aizwal.

Mizoram based Mizo National Front had declared independence in 1966. Pakistan had then extended help to the MNF. The rebels had also captured a few Indian Army posts in Mizoram forcing the then Indira Gandhi government to order the IAF to bomb the rebel positions in the state.

The controversy has come as a boon for the Rajasthan Congress which was faced with internal dissension between Gehlot and Sachin Pilot camps. But now the two camps have united on this issue.