SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 11 (UPI)—Senator George McGovern said today that India was “justified” when it invaded Pakistan, and he criticized the Nixon Administration for accusing India of aggression.

“They have moved in to put an end to the slaughter in East Pakistan,” he said in reply to a Pakistani exchange student's question.

The South Dakota Senator, a Democratic Presidential candidate, told an audience of Sacramento City College that the West Pakistan Government had provoked the invasion.

“I feel strongly about your government in West Pakistan,” he told the student. “What it has done in East Pakistan is nothing less than barbarous.”