‘Modi Govt redeeming for sins of Cong’
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Jan 5: Fully justifying the enactment of Citizens Amendment Act (CAA), Union Minister in PMO with independent charge of North Eastern States, Dr Jitendra Singh today said that Narendra Modi Government is redeeming for the sins of past Congress Governments.
Launching the BJP’s country-wide 10-day mass contact drive from here, Dr Jitendra Singh said one of the greatest blunders done by Congress was that it gave parts of undivided J&K on platter to PoJK.
Dr Jitendra Singh said PoJK would have been part of India had the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru not come under the influence of the then National Conference (NC) patriarch and former Chief Minister of J&K, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah to declare unilateral ceasefire during the Kabalis raid in 1947.
“This was done under a well hatched conspiracy by NC leaders as they didn’t want the non Kashmiri speaking PoJK people to be the part of the electorate of the erstwhile State of J&K as they wanted that the subsequent NC Governments should remain beneficiaries”, he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh while criticizing the Congress leadership said that Pt. Nehru violated his propriety as Prime Minister and went to Mandi House to declare unilateral ceasefire despite the fact that the Kabalis were on run.
He reiterated Modi Government’s commitment of retrieving PoJK from the clutches of Pakistan to which the nation stands committed through the joint Parliament resolution of 1994.
The Union Minister, while turning tables on Congress and its allies for misleading people on CAA, said the Congress leaders should be made to read speeches of their past leadership over the issue. “If a survey is conducted, one would realise that even the family members of these Congress leaders do not support their anti-CAA stand.”
He said even in West Bengal when TMC leaders protested against CAA their family members did not support them. “Even Rahul Gandhi should ask his party leaders what their inner voice says about the CAA instead of misleading the nation over the issue”, he added.
While justifying the CAA, Dr Jitendra Singh said India is the only shelter for religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities who come from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, for the safety of their life and honour. India owes responsibility towards the minorities living in these countries which proclaim “Islam” as their State religion, he added.
During his campaign, the Union Minister was accompanied by senior leaders of BJP including former Deputy Chief Minister, Kavinder Gupta, former Minister, Sat Sharma, State general secretary, Narinder Singh, former MLC, Vibodh Gupta, State treasurer, Arvind Gupta and others.
Dr Jitendra Singh started off with a visit to the house of veteran columnist and writer Padmashri Dr K N Pandita, where he spent time with the members of family discussing the issue of CAA. The other houses visited by Dr Jitendra Singh included prominent Muslim social activist Amjad Mirza, eminent Sikh religious leader, Baba Swaranjit Singh, retired Judge of High Court, Justice G D Sharma, veteran journalist and Bureau Head of Hind Samachar Group, Gopal Sachar, retired Principal Government Medical College Jammu, Dr Subhash Gupta, social activist and president of Peoples’ Forum Ramesh Sabharwal and others.
Dr Jitendra Singh during his interaction with these prominent people and media persons said, the Congress leaders and their allies who are out on the streets protesting against the CAA are not doing so without conviction.
The tragedy of Congress Party and contemporary leaders of Congress, Dr Jitendra Singh said, is that either they do not read their own history or are blissfully ignorant of the statements made by their own party patriarchs and former Prime Ministers. He said, the Nehru-Liaqat Khan Pact of 1950 was inspired by the realization on the part of the then Congress Government headed by Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru that minorities, particularly Hindus, were not getting a fair deal in Pakistan.
Over a year, before the Pact was signed, he recalled, in 1949 Nehru had in a letter expressed concerns about the people coming over from the then East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, and while doing so, he had referred to Hindus coming from East Pakistan as “Hindu refugees” and Muslims coming from East Pakistan as “Muslim Immigrants”. Not only this, Nehru had further gone on to State that India owned a responsibility to these refugees, he added.
While today Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act, Dr Jitendra Singh said, someone should show them the records of Parliament proceedings of the winter session in 1950 when their great – grandfather and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had himself, while expressing concerns over these refugees coming from Pakistan, said that they deserved to be given citizenship and if the law was inadequate for it, then the law should be changed.
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi should actually be given credit for showing the courage and conviction to carry forward the task, which the Congress Government lacked the courage to accomplish.
Dr Jitendra Singh reiterated that as far as Muslims are concerned, a false fear psychosis is sought to be manufactured, because the fact is that in the whole world, for the Muslim community, there is no place as safe and comfortable to live as India.
Turning the tables on the opposition with regard to National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Dr Jitendra Singh said, while Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Home Minister, Amit Shah have time and again stated that the exercise on NRC is yet to begin, it was the then Home Minister, P Chidambaram, who had stated in the Parliament in 2010 that the NPR could be a basis for NRC.
During a meeting at Bhatindi, Dr Jitendra Singh assured the gathering that Modi Government without the consideration of vote politics is committed to provide justice to all those sections of society who have been deprived of the same for various political considerations by the past rulers.
He said “We are here to run the country and not the Government and our objective is that last man in the last queue should be served”.
He said time has changed and nothing can be done by political bargaining in this evidence based era and this Government is working with open mind on all the issues.
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