On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi encouraged individuals interested in foreign policy to read the book ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crisis’, which provides insights into Jawaharlal Nehru’s discussions with US President John F. Kennedy.
The comment is perceived as a rebuttal to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s claim in Parliament that the government dispatched the External Affairs Minister “three or four times” to the US to obtain an invitation for PM Modi to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“When the country was facing a lot of challenges, what game was going on in the name of foreign policy is being exposed through this book,” PM Modi said.
The comments were made a day after Rahul Gandhi, while participating in the motion of gratitude for the President’s address, asserted that China had encroached on Indian territory due to the failure of the Make in India “initiative”.
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The title of the book is ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA and the Sino-Indian War’, authored by Bruce Riedel, an ex-CIA officer. It explores the 1962 Sino-Indian War and Nehru’s appeal to Kennedy for fighter jets to counter an assertive China.
The book similarly illuminates Nehru and his diplomatic efforts during the nation’s difficult times. Social media users promptly unearthed contentious passages from the book that refer to how Nehru was “interested” in “Pat Kennedy,” the appealing 27-year-old sister of the former US President. This occurred during Nehru’s trip to the United States on November 6, 1961.
It also notes that India’s first Prime Minister preferred to reside in a guest house frequently utilized by Lady Edwina Mountbatten, the spouse of the final viceroy of India.
The book highlights the official visit of John Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to India in March 1962.
“The embassy had rented a villa for Mrs Kennedy to stay in, but Nehru insisted after she arrived that she stay in a guest suite at the prime minister’s residence. It was the suite often used by Edwina Mountbatten… A frequent visitor to India after Independence, Edwina and Nehru were close friends if not more,” the book says.
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A dispute recently arose after the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library asked the Gandhi family to return the private letters that Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to Edwina Mountbatten. The BJP claims that Sonia Gandhi took away 51 cartons of Nehru’s letters in 2008.
An excerpt from the book that circulated on social media states that Kennedy informed the then United States Ambassador it was the “worst state visit” during his presidency. The book states, “Kennedy also felt that Nehru seemed more interested in talking with Jackie (Jacqueline Kennedy) than with him.”
