“But we couldn’t do otherwise. We couldn’t keep ten million refugees on our soil; we couldn’t tolerate such an unstable situation for who knows how long. That influx of refugees would have stopped—on the contrary. It would have gone on and on and on, until there would have been an explosion. We were no longer able to control the arrival of those people, in our own interest we had to stop it! That’s what I said to Mr. Nixon, to all the other leaders I visited in an attempt to avert the war. However, when you look at the beginning of the actual war, it’s hard not to recognize that the Pakistanis were the ones to attack. They were the ones who descended on us with their planes, at five o’clock that afternoon when the first bombs fell on Agra. I can prove it to you by the fact that we were taken completely by surprise.”

— Indíra Gándhí

Oriana Fallaci. Interview with Indira Gandhi in New Delhi, February 1972

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 2, 2023. History

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Indíra Gándhí 35

Indian politician and Prime Minister 1917–1984

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Indíra Gándhí 35

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