Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 25: Paying tribute to the Dogra king Maharaja Hari Singh on the eve of Accession Day, BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta said that we should be eternally grateful towards the Maharja as his action has made us all citizens of India.
“Jammu & Kashmir became an integral part of India after Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947. The ruler had done so by exercising his right as defined under Indian Independence Act of 1947,” Gupta said in a handout issued today.
He said the Dogra Maharaja had signed the same Instrument of Accession which dozens of others Princely States had signed before him. The document that he had signed was in no way different from those who signed it before, and, after him. One of the most famous cases of the Instrument of Accession being signed later than J&K was that of the Princely state of Bhopal, he pointed out.
Incidentally, Bhopal, which was one of the last Princely states to sign the Instrument of Accession, serves as the capital of Madhya Pradesh now. Despite the fact that Bhopal has signed this document over 18 months after J&K, no questions are asked about it. The reason is that it was not mandatory for the Princely states to sign the accession document before Independence Day (August 15, 1947).
“Maharaja Hari Singh is accused by some uninformed and ignorant people of delaying the signing of the accession document. These people also say that this delay caused trouble in J&K but this is a patent falsehood. As early as in 1930, at a roundtable conference of princes in London, he had clearly demonstrated his Indian-ness. There is nothing on record to show that Maharaja Hari Singh was ever in doubt about his joining India, he added.
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