Minister’s frontal attack on first PM with quotes from his speeches
Cong credits Sheikh, claims Patel was OK with Kashmir joining Pak
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 12: Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju today exposed first Prime Minister of India and Congress leader Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru on the accession of Jammu and Kashmir saying it was Nehru who delayed Maharaja’s proposal of Kashmir acceding to India and not Maharaja Hari Singh.
In a twitter thread spanning over six tweets quoting Nehru’s speech in Parliament etc, Rijiju, while responding to veteran Congress leader and former Minister Jairam Ramesh, said it was not Maharaja Hari Singh but Nehru who delayed the accession of Kashmir with India. Maharaja Hari Singh approached with the accession to India in July 1947, a month before independence of the country, much like other princely States but offers of others were accepted while that of Kashmir was rejected, he added.
He said Nehru not only rejected Maharaja Hari Singh’s request for accession in July 1947, but even dithered in October 1947 as well. This was when Pakistan invaders had reached within kilometres of Srinagar.
Launching frontal attack on Nehru and charging him with indulging in vote bank politics, Rijiju said First, Maharaja wanted to join India in July 1947 itself. Second, It was Nehru who rejected Hari Singh’s request.
Summing up Nehru’s treachery, Rijiju said while Maharaja wanted to join India in July 1947, Nehru rejected his proposal and conjured up some ‘special case’ for Kashmir and had wanted ‘much more’ than mere accession.
“Why was Kashmir made the only exception by Nehru, where the Princely ruler wanted to join India, and yet Nehru wanted ‘much more’? What was that much more? Truth is, India is still paying the price for Nehru’s follies,” Rijiju said.
He asked what was that special case? Vote bank politics?
The Union Minister quoted Nehru as saying in Lok Sabha on 24th July, 1952 (after agreement with Sheikh Abdullah): “In regard to Kashmir, even before the 15th August, I should imagine in July, the question came up before us informally. And the advice we gave was that the State of Jammu and Kashmir, for a variety of reasons, occupied a very special place.
“So, the first time Maharaja Hari Singh approached Nehru for accession to India was July 1947 itself, a full month before independence. it was Nehru who rebuffed the Maharaja”.
Describing as “historical lie” that Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on question of accession of Kashmir with India, the Union Law Minister said: “this has gone on far too long in order to protect the dubious role of Jawahar Lal Nehru”.
“Here is Nehru in his own words on why it was not Maharaja Hari Singh who delayed Kashmir’s accession to India but Nehru himself,” Rijiju tweeted.
The Law Minister quoted Nehru as saying: “So that, when the question of Kashmir at first informally came up before us–it was always before us in a sense, but it came up before us informally round about July or the middle of July–the advise we gave to Kashmir State was–and, if I may say so, we had contacts with the popular organization there, the National Conference and its leaders and we have contacts with the Maharaja’s Government also, rather vague contacts, but that dealt with us.
“So we made it clear in the month of July 1947 that the State of Jammu and Kashmir shouldn’t be hustled into taking any action, though many of their leaders were personally inclined, but they knew their people too and they said that the initiative should come from the people and not merely from the Maharaja’s Government, only then it will endure. We accepted that entirely. And so we informed the Maharaja’s Government as well as the leaders of the popular movement there that this matter of accession shouldn’t be hurried, that it should wait over till some method was found of consulting the people.
“The advise we gave to both was that Kashmir is a special case and it would not be right or proper to try to rush things there, and the general principle we had laid down that people of the State should be consulted specially applied to Kashmir. This was before partition, before the actual coming of independence. We made it clear that even if the Maharaja and his Government then wanted to accede to India, we would like something much more, that is, popular approvals of it before we took that step. We did not wish by some clever tactics to gain something on paper”.
To support his claim that Nehru rejected Maharaja Hari Singh’s request for accession in October 1947 as well when Pakistani invaders had reached within striking distance of Srinagar, Rijiju quoted Nehru again: “At that time we received independent appeals both from the Maharaja’s Government and from the popular organization of Kashmir. The appeals were for help and for accession to India. We gave long and very anxious consideration to these, tried to consider and think out the implications etc and we had to come to a quick decision.
“I remember, it must, it must have been the 27th of October, after practically an all day sitting in the evening we came to the conclusion that in spite of all the risks and dangers involved, we could not say `No’ to that appeal and that we had to go there to help them”.
Earlier, senior Congress leader and former Minister Jairam Ramesh over his Twitter thread alleged that Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on Kashmir’s accession to India and it was Sheikh Abdullah who championed it, “entirely because of his friendship and admiration for Nehru.”
Ramesh took to twitter to shift the blame of the vexed issue of Kashmir from Nehru to Maharaja Hari Singh.
Ramesh credited Kashmir’s accession to Sheikh Abdullah. He raised aspersions on Sardar Patel, stating that he was OK with Kashmir joining Pakistan till September 1947.
“Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on accession. There were dreams of independence. But when Pakistan invaded, Hari Singh acceded to India,” Ramesh said in a tweet.
Ramesh quoted from “Patel: A Life” by Rajmohan Gandhi to say that Vallabhbhai’s lukewarmness about Kashmir had lasted until September 13, 1947. That morning, in a letter to Baldev Singh, he had indicated that if (Kashmir) decides to join the other dominion, he would accept the fact. His attitude changed later that day when he heard the Pakistan had accepted Junagadh’s accession. If Jinnah could take hold of a Hindu majority State with a Muslim ruler, why should the Sardar (Patel) not be interested in a Muslim majority State with a Hindu ruler. From that day Junagadh and Kashmir, the pawn and the queen, became his simultaneous concerns. he would wrest the one and defend the other.
“Had Jinnah allowed the King and the pawn to go to India, Patel, as we have seen might have let the queen go to Pakistan, but Jinnah rejected the deal,” said the paragraph from Rajmohan Gandhi’s book tagged by Jairam Ramesh.
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