Nehru with Chou en Lai
“Nehru didn’t keep India out of UNSC or reject Kennedy offer, it is just rhetoric” Congress refers to FirstPost article to claim that Nehru didn’t keep India out of UNSC. Calls Ravi Shankar Prasad a liar. What is the truth? Let us check facts in this thread.
Congress handles have all taken refuge of the Firstpost article written by Sandipan Sharma to claim “No such offer(UNSC seat) was ever given”.In the Firstpostarticle, Sandipan Sharma Quotes Nehru himself. On 27 September 1955 in Parliament, Nehru categorically denied that a UNSC seat was ever offered to India. “There has been no offer, formal or informal, of this kind”- said Nehru. But just a month earlier,on August 2 1955, Nehru in his letter to Chief Ministers clearly mentions there was indeed an informal offer from US for a UNSC seat. Nehru denied it because he didn’t want to take the seat “because it would be unfair to a great country like China”
This letter can be accessed online. It is available on Page 237 of Jawaharlal’s Nehru’s “Letters to the Chief ministers Volume 4 (1947-1964)”, Oxford university Press. Government of India 1988 (Check for page 237 in this link)
In August 1955, Nehru said, “We got informal offer of UNSC seat. I rejected it”. Within one month, by September 1955, Nehru made a complete U-turn and said, “There has been no formal or informal offer of UNSC seat”. Who is the liar now?
The propaganda Firstpost article quotes what Nehru said in Parliament, but carefully ignores what Nehru wrote to this chief ministers, as that would complete expose Nehru. To defend Nehru’s image, official Congress handles like@AICCMediaare making factually incorrect claims. There HAD BEEN a change in UN composition. In 1950, PRC was blocked from taking Chinese seat at UN. In response Russia walked out. These events gave a scope for a new member.
It was not once, but twice that India was offered a seat at UNSC. Nehru rejected the seat both the times. The above mentioned excerpt of Nehru’s letter to Chief Ministers refers to the UNSC offer of 1955. There was another UNSC offer in 1950 which was also rejected by Nehru. In a letter to Nehru dated 24th August 1950, Indian Ambassador to US and Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit reveals that US State department made a proposal to India for UNSC seat. Those were the days of Cold War and US was looking at a potential ally in India.
Nehru wrote a response to this letter on August 30 He unequivocally denied the offer. He said the UNSC seat would break “the impeccable relations between India and China”. He further said “it would be an affront to China” and he would “press for China’s admission in UNSC”.
You will see a lot of Nehru apologists arguing that the offer was “just a bait”. But the fact is that in those days US was indeed willing to concede India a fair deal because it was looking at potential allies in our region in the wake of Cold War. Nehru got three foreign offers in total for a UNSC seat. Twice by US in 1950 and 1955. Once by Chinese rebels. It takes a bare faced liar like Nehru to deny such an offer ever took place.
Nehru apologist press has been indulging in lies to cover this up. There is an article by the The Wire which admits that UNSC seat was indeed offered, but calls the offer “a bait”. In this article, The Wirerepublishes an excellent article by the author Anton Harder. Wire’s dirty tricks are for everyone to see. In the heading, The Wirecalls the offer “American bait”. The word “American bait” was not used at all by the author in the article. The author Anton Harder’s original article can also be accessed here -> link:https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/cwihp_working_paper_76_not_at_the_cost_of_china.pdf). Notice that he does not call the offer an “American bait”. Far from it, he calls it a “genuine offer”. So, what did “The Wire” really do? It reproduced a good article by a noted author, but attributed a fake quote to him and used the fake quote in a heading I challenge The Wireto show us where the author referred to the offer as “American Bait”.
(Compiled from the thread posted by @TrueIndology on Twitter)
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