The Congress on Thursday cited the absence of any mention of Indira Gandhi from the Centre’s narrative on the 50th anniversary celebrations of the 1971 war as proof of the Narendra Modi government’s misogyny.

Addressing a Vijay Samman rally of ex-servicemen in Dehradun, Rahul Gandhi emphasised that an event held in Delhi to mark the occasion had witnessed no mention of the late Prime Minister who had led India to victory in that war.

“The woman who took 32 bullets and died for the country (in 1984) finds no mention because this government is afraid of her,” he said.

Rahul asserted that India was able to defeat Pakistan because the country was united and not divided along the lines of language and region the way Pakistan was.

“Our first and only woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, is being left out of the misogynist BJP government’s Vijay Divas celebrations. This, on the 50th anniversary of the day that she led India to victory and liberated Bangladesh,” he said.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has made women the cornerstone of her campaign in the run-up to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, tweeted: “@narendramodi ji, women don’t believe your platitudes. Your patronising attitude is unacceptable. It’s about time you started giving women their due.”

Junior parliamentary affairs minister Arjun Ram Meghwal contested the Congress charge, saying references were made to the 50th anniversary of the 1971 war in both Houses of Parliament on Thursday, with mention of all those who had provided leadership.

However, the presiding officers had only mentioned the armed forces and not the political leadership of the time.

Besides Modi, several Union ministers and other BJP leaders posted tweets on Vijay Divas, but without any references to Indira Gandhi.

Briefing journalists, Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, accused the government of “pettiness” in its inability to give credit where it is due.

Kharge underlined that former BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had referred to Indira Gandhi as a reincarnation of Goddess Durga after she led India to victory and divided Pakistan in two.

“We all know this is history, but why are we today being forced to repeat this in front of you?” Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said.

“Because today, our Prime Minister, unfortunately, is so insecure, unfortunately is so weak, that he can’t even take the name of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhiji, can’t even acknowledge the role that the Congress party played, can’t even acknowledge the role that the Prime Minister played. This is nothing but an attempt to whitewash history.”

Members of some other parties too criticised the government for airbrushing Indira Gandhi out of the commemoration of the victory.

“If you credit PM Vajpayee with the victory in Kargil or the nuclear tests & credit PM Modi with the Balakote strike then you can’t possibly mark Vijay Diwas & the military success in Bangladesh without crediting PM Indira Gandhi,” tweeted National Conference leader Omar Abdullah.