When Lata Mangeshkar’s Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo made then PM Jawaharlal Nehru cry: ‘Tumne aaj mujhe rula diya’

Singer Lata Mageshkar died on Sunday. Lata sang more than 25,000 songs in her decades-long career but her patriotic song Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon made India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru’s emotional.

Lata sang the song for the first time, two months after 1962’s Sino-Indian War on Republic Day (January 26, 1963). President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were also present at the event, which happened in New Delhi’s National Stadium.

When the event ended, Lata was informed that Nehru wanted to talk to her. “At first I was nervous, thinking I have committed some mistake. But when I met Panditji (Nehru), I saw tears in his eyes. ‘Lata, tumne aaj mujhe rula diya’,” the singer said during an event in Mumbai held to mark the 51st anniversary of Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon. According to a report by News 18, after listening to the song, Nehru said, “Those who don’t feel inspired by ‘Aye mere watan ke logon’ don’t deserve to be called a Hindustani.”

The iconic singer died of multiple organ failure at Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai on Sunday. She was hospitalised on January 11 after contracting Covid-19. She was 92 and is survived by her four siblings.  

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Born in 1929 in pre-independence India, Lata began singing in her teens, and in a career spanning 73 years, sang more than an estimated 25,000 songs in 36 languages. Her first recorded song was in 1942 in the Marathi film Kiti Hasaal when she was just 13. In October last year, 79 years later, Vishal Bhardwaj released Theek Nahi Lagta, a song with Lata’s favourite lyricist Gulzar.