Union Home Minister and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader continued his attack on the first Prime Minister of Independent India-Jawaharlal Nehru over the Jammu and Kashmir issue. Amit Shah reiterated his accusations that it was because of the ‘Nehruvian blunders’ that Pakistan could ‘illegally’ occupy of a portion of Kashmir, known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), or Azad Kashmir.
Amit Shah was speaking in the Rajya Sabha during a discussion on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
“Jahan tak nazariye ka sawaal hai, desh ki ek bhi inch zameen ka sawaal hai, humara nazariya tung rahega, hum dil bada nahi kar sakte. No one has the right to give away a section of our land to show off their big heart,” Amit Shah said.
Amit Shah also gave a reference to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw and said that it was due to Sardar Patel’s intervention that the Indian Army was sent when Kashmir was being invaded by the Pakistanis.
“I want to give a reference to Sam Manekshaw. He said at one place that when the Pakistanis were attacking Kashmir, then he was busy in discussions (don’t want to name the person). Sam Manekshaw was present at a meeting in which Sardar Patel told Nehru, “Do you want Kashmir or not?” Then the decision to send the army was taken. If there was no ceasefire at an appropriate time, PoK would not have been there. Why was the matter taken to the UN?” Shah said.
The Home Minister also quoted Jawaharlal Nehru‘s one of quotes in which he “accepted his mistake” of taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, and said, “After the experience of United Nations, I have come to the conclusions that no satisfactory results can be expected from there. I considered the ceasefire decision a good one, but we could not deal with this matter well. We should have had more thoughts on the ceasefire and taken it late. Though, these are the mistakes of the past.” This quote is of Jawaharlal Nehru. Unko toh manoge ya nahi manoge ki unhone galti ki. Accept this…(Jawaharlal Nehru himself is accepting that he did a mistake)”.
“The Supreme Court has affirmed that Article 370 was a temporary provision in the Indian Constitution. I would like to pose a question to those who adhere to Nehru’s philosophy: If Article 370 was extremely important, why did Nehru himself use the term ‘Temporary’ in relation to the article? Everyone who says that Article 370 is permanent is insulting the Constitution!” Amit Shah added.
The petitions challenging the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 and the validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 that divided the erstwhile state into the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were referred to the Constitution bench in 2019.
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Published: 11 Dec 2023, 10:47 PM IST