About the loss of Aksai Chin, Nehru is reported to have said in Parliament “not a single blade of grass grows there.” Mahavir Tyagi, a senior Congress leader, pointed to his bald head and said: “Nothing grows here … should it be given away to somebody else?”
Aksai chin debate
Tyagi famously criticised Nehru's statement in the Indian Parliament in the prelude to the Sino-Indian War:
Nehru had commented earlier that “It is Indian territory and we claim it so because we think that the weight of evidence is in our favour, maps, etc., but the Chinese produce their own maps, equally old, which are in their favour. And the territory is sterile. It has been described as a barren, uninhabited region without a vestige of grass, and seventeen thousand feet high. Nothing can be more amazing folly than for two great countries like India and China to go into a major conflict and war for the possession of a few mountain peaks, however beautiful the mountain peaks might be, or some area which is more or less uninhabited.”, attempting to explain that Aksai Chin was a barren, inhospitable land and that the two nations must not go to war over it.
Tyagi retorted, pointing to his own bald head: "Nothing grows here ..should it be cut off or given away to somebody else?".
A tense situation that had been developing in the House on the subject of the border conflict was averted as the House dissolved in laughter in which Nehru also joined. Tyagi continued to enjoy an affectionate relationship with Jawaharlal Nehru. He served as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (1962–64).
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