I didn't think it was an act of courage, because I never felt that was doing something dangerous. It was a mere reflex. Something happens to you and you react in a particular way. Actually, Mr. Shastri also went; but not to Tezpur. He went to Gauhati and he tried keep me there too. He was with the Assam Cabinet and I had to wait. I waited an hour and a half and I was getting pretty fed up because it was getting dark. I knew that if it got dark they would say that I could not go. Shastriji said that the Assam Chief Minister was very upset. So I didn't say anything about going to Tezpur at all. I simply said I was going out, and I went. I got on to an army plane and flew to Tezpur. As I was waiting for a plane to be ready I could see that lots of people were panicking, even in Gauhatl. Lots of women came and grabbed my legs, asking me to take them with me. They thought that I was going to Delhi.



The Army was also against my going to Tezpur. In fact, the Army is always opposed to anyone going to a military area.



Once I got there, I was able to encourage the local people, specially young people. I also went around the various places where the soldiers were, and wherever I went, they were glad. The conditions were rather bad. The camps were set up hastily as there was heavy rain.

The Citizens Council really did a good job. It was composed mostly of women. In all the States, either the Governor's wife or the Chief Minister's wife headed the Council. One of the most efficient of our members was the wife of the Punjab Chief Minister, Mrs. Kairon. I remember one incident. We had to send jeeps to fetch prisoners of war. They phoned at about 7.00 p.m. on a Saturday evening, saying that the Chinese insisted that whoever went should be dressed in white from head to foot. It was bitterlv cold and all the uniforms were khaki. We had nothing white at all. We didn't have sheets that our people could have torn. They had to leave the next day by 11.00 a.m. or so. I didn't know how many white covers they needed but it was



quite a large number, because, not only the drivers, but all those who went, like doctors and so on, had to be in white. First, I phoned everybody I knew in Delhi. All the shops were closed. All the tailors were off work. It may have been Sunday evening, I don't remember very precisely. Every woman I tried to get hold of was out. Finally we reached a few. They managed to get through back doors and get some shops open to collect white material. We didn't even have money at that moment, but we promised to pay for the material later. The women sat up all night and we had a pile of overalls ready by 4.00 in the morning. I went to the airport to put them on the plane and by 12.00 we had a call from the frontier, saying that the clothes had arrived and the party all dressed in white had just left.

Speeches Credit

Book : My Truth Indira Gandhi

: My Truth Indira Gandhi Presented by Emmanuel Pouchpadass Based on Interviews and Other Source Material.

Published by Vision Books Pvt. Ltd. www.visionbooksindia.com

Tezpur