"Not fashionable in 1970 as it is now to be anti-Muslim...": Mani Shankar Aiyar at book launch event

Aiyar, who was the chief guest at the launch of the book 'The Scam That Shook a Nation: The Nagarwala Scandal' also spoke about Indira Gandhi's victory in the 1971 general elections and role of opposition parties in the run up to the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to creation of Bangladesh.

Aiyar spoke of Rustam Sohrab Nagarwala, a retired Indian Army captain whose actions orchestrated the episode. He also spoke about Ved Prakash Malhotra, the then head cashier at the State Bank of India's Parliament Street branch, who believed he got a telephone call from the Prime Minister's secretariat to hand over Rs 60 lakh to a courier for some secret use in the mission related to the liberation struggle in East Pakistan.

Aiyar,83, said he has a clear memory of the circumstances in which the Nagarwala incident happened. "I don't think it was a scam, I don't think it was a scandal. The right word that I would have used if I was the editor of this book is to call it a sting operation or probably more correctly a prank that turned into sting operation," he said.

Aiyar, who is no stranger to controversies, said that everyone in India was charged up due to the Indira Gandhi's electoral victory in 1971 and actions of Pakistan leadership and its army in the then East Pakistan.

The Congress leader said he too felt at that time that India should have intervened militarily in the month of April. The military confrontation between India and Pakistan occurred during the war for liberation of Bangladesh from December 3 to 16, 1971.

The war began with pre-emptive aerial strikes by Pakistan Air Force on Indian assets. This led to the commencement of hostilities with Indian entry into the War of Independence of Bangladesh in support of Bengali nationalist forces. Pakistan forces were convincingly defeated in the war.

"What was happening at that time, everyone in India was charged up. I personally believed that we should have intervened militarily in the month of April. The reason for that was that the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi had told the minister for whom I was working at that time, I was his private secretary...Dinesh Singh, 'ki saamp toh nikal gaya, sothi lagakar kya fayda' (snake has gone now, what is use of force)," Aiyar said.

"So the feeling in India, in many circles, was that we had missed a great opportunity of putting the Pakistanis in their place. But as subsequent writing has shown, it was a very wise, intelligent move, largely made by PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi. And concurring with them was General, later Field Marshal, Manekshah," he added.

The Congress leader said the Army and the Indian political establishment were on the same wavelength but the opposition was desperate to somehow "undermine Indira Gandhi by saying that the intervention should have taken place now, you missed your great opportunity".

"It was in these circumstances that Nagarwala acted. Now, who is Nagarwala? Unfortunately, in the organization of this book, you don't get to know who Nagarwala is until you've been well past half the book. But when you get there, you discover that this guy was a professional prankster...He never succeeded in holding down a job. And when he did get a job, which was in the army in 1940-41, as a junior commissioned officer, and then in 1943, he got into the Indian Military Academy and became an officer," Aiyar said.

Referring to the incident, Aiyar took potshots at the BJP-led government at the Centre.

"And as an officer, he (Nagarwala) was posted on the India-Pakistan border at a place called Harbanspur. And he witnessed with his own eyes the horrors that had been inflicted on the 15 million people who were exchanged between Pakistan and India and India and Pakistan, taken together. Now, Ved Prakash Malhotra was a refugee from West Pakistan. And he was fired with this patriotic zeal, which was largely expressed, as it is being expressed today, by being anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan, particularly anti-Pakistan, because it was not fashionable in 1970, as it is now, to be anti-Muslim. And he, therefore, was desperate to somehow make his contribution at this great national crisis that had come to our country. That is what accounted for his naivete. That when he was in the normal course, I do not think somebody with Ved Prakash's background....," Aiyar added.

He said Malhotra was regarded universally as an extremely good and honest officer.

"He was very conscientious. He did what he had to do. But here is a wonderful incident recounted here where they decided to go on a strike in the State Bank of India and they called on the Finance Minister. And the Finance Minister said I do not want you in the national interest to go on strike at this stage when the country is in such a crisis," Aiyar said.

"And the trade Union insisted going on strike. So Ved Prakash Malhotra, who was the vice-president of the trade Union, preferred losing his post to disobeying the government. So the man was a creature of his times. And he, therefore, wanted to do something and got his great opportunity when he got a call from PN Haksar. Now, it was a time when everybody was full of conspiracy theories and it was perfectly possible that secret operations were being undertaken...," he added.

The book has been written by journalists Prakash Patra and Rasheed Kidwai. (ANI)