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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey on Saturday hit out at the Congress over former CIA official Richard Barlow’s remarks that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi didn’t allow any attack on Pakistan to halt its atomic ambition, saying that it was the Congress leadership that allowed Pakistan to move ahead with its nuclear programme, which became a headache for India today. “Pakistan started making nuclear bombs in 1980. When this information was revealed, Israel wanted to come together with India and attack Pakistan… But in 1982, former PM Indira Gandhi asked the military not to take any action,” the BJP MP said as quoted by news agency ANI. #WATCH | Katihar. Bihar | BJP MP Nishikant Dubey says, “Pakistan started making nuclear bombs in 1980. When this information was revealed, Israel wanted to come together with India and attack Pakistan… But in 1982, Former PM Indira Gandhi asked the military not to take any… pic.twitter.com/WCasEQQKEJ — ANI (@ANI) November 8, 2025 He further said that such an operation could have altered South Asia’s strategic landscape. “Had Pakistan not been a nuclear state, what would its value have been? It would have been destroyed and divided into pieces,” he added. Dubey further accused the grand old party of compromising national interests for political gains. “A CIA document from 1974 mentioned that after India’s nuclear test, Indira Gandhi wanted to share the technology with Pakistan for vote bank politics. Congress thinks that the more it raises the slogans of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, the more Muslim votes it will get,” Dubey alleged. He accused the Gandhi family of “pawning the nation for Muslim votes” and said that India now faces a “neighbour that can never improve” as a result of decisions taken in the past. His remarks came a day after former CIA official Richard Barlow reacted to reports about a joint plan by India and Israel in the 1980s to launch a pre-emptive strike on Pakistan’s Kahuta nuclear facility, saying that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did not approve of the attack. He called the decision a “shame,” saying the mission could have resolved numerous problems. During an interview with ANI, Barlow, a former CIA member who was part of the American intelligence agency as a counterproliferation officer during Pakistan’s clandestine nuclear activities in the 1980s, confirmed that he had heard of the reported plan within intelligence circles but was not directly involved, as he was out of government service during that period. “I was out of government from 1982 until 1985. And I think that may have occurred while I was out of government. I heard about it at some point. But I didn’t get my teeth into it because it never happened,” Barlow said. “It’s a shame that Indira Gandhi didn’t approve it; it would have solved a lot of problems,” he added. However, he said that any action against Pakistan’s nuclear facility would have infuriated then-US President Ronald Reagan, who would have taken strong action against then-Israeli PM Menachem Begin. “It would have interfered with the Afghan problem because… they (Pakistan) were basically using the flow of covert aid to the Mujahideen as blackmail. I think that’s what (Pakistan Army Chief Asim) Munir was saying.” (With inputs from agencies)
