Home Minister Amit Shah blamed Bharat’s first
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s “two major blunders” – declaring a ceasefire
without winning the entire Kashmir and taking the issue to the United Nations –
for the sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on
the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir
Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, Shah said if Nehru had taken the right steps,
a large chunk of territory would not have been ceded and Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir would have been part of Bharat.
“I support the word that was used here –
Nehruvian blunder. Because of the blunder that was committed during the time of
Nehru, Kashmir had to suffer. With responsibility, I want to say that the two
big blunders that happened during the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru, happened due
to his decisions, because of which Kashmir had to suffer for years,” said Shah.
“Kashmir had to suffer due to Nehruvian
blunders. One was that when our Army was winning and as soon as Punjab area was
reached, ceasefire was declared and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was born. If the
ceasefire would have been (declared) three days later, PoK would have been part
of India,” said the home minister.
The ceasefire made without winning the
entire Kashmir was one “blunder” and the other was taking the issue to the UN.
There was an uproar by the Opposition
benches over the remarks on Nehru and they staged a walkout but returned later.
After their walkout, BJD leader
Bhartruhari Mahtab said the Home Minister should also talk about the “Himalayan
blunder”, a reference to Nehru’s actions leading up to the war with China in
1962.
Shah quipped that his talking about two
blunders had upset the Opposition Benches and if he had used the phrase “Himalayan
blunder”, they would have resigned.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said the
remarks made were not an insult to anyone and were only made to put things in
context.
In his remarks, Shah also alleged that
the Kashmir matter was taken to the UN in a hurry.
“If at all it had to be taken to the UN,
it should have been sent under Article 51 rather than Article 35 of the UN
Charter,” he said, asserting that he of course believes that the issue should
not have been taken to the UN in the first place.
Shah also quoted Nehru as saying later
that the ceasefire was a “mistake”. Shah added that it was not Nehru’s mistake
but a blunder.
“So much land of this country was lost,
it was a historic blunder,” added the Home Minister.
Talking about the abrogation of Article
370, Shah said it had nothing to do with going back on promise as it was a
temporary article and had to go.
“You did not have the courage, PM
Narendra Modi showed courage and did away with it,” he said, referring to the Opposition
Benches.
Shah pointed out that the two bills on
Jammu and Kashmir seek to nominate two Kashmiri Migrant community members,
including a woman, to the assembly.
One seat in the Jammu and Kashmir
assembly will be set aside for people displaced from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,
said the Home Minister.
More than 45,000 people have lost their
lives due to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir so far, he said.
Shah said the government’s focus was on
ending the terror ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said a plan to have zero terror
incidents in Jammu and Kashmir is in force for three years and it will be
successful by 2026.
“I believe Modi Government will return
to power in 2024 and by 2026, I hope there will be no terror incident in Jammu
and Kashmir,” he said.
Shah said the two bills will give
justice to those deprived of their rights for the last 70 years and asserted
that reservation to the displaced people will give them a voice in the
legislature.
He said had terrorism been tackled at
the beginning without considering vote-bank politics, Kashmiri Pandits would
not have had to leave Kashmir Valley.
He said one of the bills seeks to give
representation in the Assembly to those who had to leave Kashmir due to
terrorism.
Shah also lashed out at the Congress for
talking about backward classes, saying that if any party has harmed backward
classes and come in the way of their growth, it is the Congress.
He said Narendra Modi was born into a
poor family and became the Prime Minister and he knows the pain of the backward
classes and the poor.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation
(Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill were
passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
PTI
