NEW DELHI: BJP marked the 75th anniversary of J&K’s accession to India on Thursday by blaming first PM Jawahar Lal Nehru for complicating the integration of the strategically significant state into the Indian Union by committing “historical” blunders which have resulted in jehadi killings, uprooting of Hindus and wars with Pakistan.
The attack on Nehru came from Union law minister Kiren Rijiju and the minister for personnel Jitendra Singh who argued that the damage done 75 years ago was now being sought to be undone by the Modi government.
“Seven decades were lost due to these Nehruvian blunders and India paid a heavy price. Finally, history took a turn in 2019 when India First was the only guiding principle,” the law minister said referring to the Modi government annulling Article 370 and ‘fully integrating’ the region with India.
In a hard-hitting article, Rijiju said Nehru dithered over the then ruler of J&K to merge his principality into India because the first PM was keen on installing his friend Sheikh Abdullah at the helm in the state. The law minister said Nehru compounded the original mistake by committing the follies of declaring the accession, when it finally happened, as provisional rather than a done deal and taking the dispute to the United Nations under Article 35 which covers disputes instead of under Article 51 which is concerned with illegal occupation that Pakistan was guilty of. On plebiscite, Rijiju said it was Nehru’s blunder which has let the myth perpetrate that a UN-mandated plebiscite in Kashmir was being stopped by India whereas it could not be conducted because of Pakistan’s refusal to withdraw its troops from the territory it had occupied — one of the conditions laid down by the UN. He said the first PM was also responsible for entrenching the separatist mindset by creating Article 370 which allowed for “special status” for J&K, thus helping a section to argue that the state was not a fullscale member of the Union.
“Seven decades have passed since those tumultuous years. India has since paid a heavy price for Nehru putting family, friendship and personal agenda above national interest,” Rijiju said and added that “it was for these blunders that the world got a lever to pin India down and Pakistan handed over part of its occupied territory to China”.
Jitendra Singh, who belongs to J&K, also accused Nehru for messing up the erstwhile princely state’s accession. He contrasted it with the smooth merger of other princely states under first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Rijiju quoted from Nehru’s parliament speech in 1952 to say that the then PM had acknowledged that the erstwhile Maharaja had expressed his readiness to sign the Instrument of Accession on July 24, 1947, well before the formal declaration of Independence.
“Installing Sheikh Abdullah, his friend, in power was more important to Nehru than integrating Kashmir,” Rijiju wrote implying that the vaccillation was exploited by Pakistan to send in troops who camouflaged themselves as a private militia.
Rijiju went on to argue that even Hasrat Mohani, a Muslim member of the Constituent Assembly, had questioned the need to treat J&K’s accession as different from that of other princely states. Neither Nehru nor N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, his point man on dealing with Sheikh Abdullah, had any answers to this question, the minister wrote.