Kashmir Accession History: India paying for Nehru’s follies, Kiren Rijiju vs Jairam Ramesh
Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on Congress’s Jairam Ramesh over the history of the accession of Kashmir with India and said Congress perpetuated a ‘historical’ lie to protect the dubious role of Nehru. “Let me quote Nehru himself to bust the lie of Jairam Ramesh,” Rijiju tweeted sharing screenshots of Nehru’s speeches in the Lok Sabha in 1952, after the agreement with Sheikh Abdullah.
“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,” Rijiju said quoting from Nehru’s speech, countering Jairam Ramesh’s recent argument that Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on accession and that there were ‘dreams of independence’. “Maharaja had approached in July 1947 itself, like all other Princely states. Other states were accepted. kashmir was rejected,” Kiren Rijiju wrote adding that India is still paying the “price for Nehru’s follies”.
Nehru rejected Hari Singh’s accession request and came up with some ‘special’ case for Kashmir and wanted much more than ‘mere accession’, Kiren Rijiju said. “What was that special case? Vote bank politics?” Rijiju asked.
The screenshot of Nehru’s speech that Rijiju shared said: “So we made it clear in the month of July 1947 that the State of Jammu and Kashmir should not be hustled into taking any action…And so we informed the Maharaja’s government as well as the leaders of the popular movement there that this matter of accession should not be hurried”.
Where did the Kiren Rijiju vs Jairam Ramesh episode begin?
Reacting to PM Modi’s speech at a rally in Gujarat on Monday where PM Modi said he could solve the Kashmir issue by walking in the footsteps of Sardar Patel, Jairam Ramesh accused the BJP of ‘whitewashing’ real history. “Sardar saheb persuaded all the princely states to merge with India. But another person handled this one issue of Kashmir,” Modi said in his speech, without naming Nehru.
Jairam Ramesh said PM Modi overlooked ‘facts’ only to ‘castigate Nehru on J&K’. “Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on accession. There were dream of independence. But when Pakistan invaded, Hari Singh acceded to India. Sheikh Abdullah championed accession to India entirely because of his friendship with and admiration for Nehru, and his respect for Gandhi. Sardar Patel was okay with J&K joining Pakistan till Sept 13 1947 when the Nawab of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan,” Jairam Ramesh wrote.
