Law Minister Kiren Rijiju fires fresh salvo on Nehru on Kashmir issue

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju mounted a fresh attack on the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on the Kashmir issue.

New Delhi: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju mounted a fresh attack on the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on the Kashmir issue on Monday, claiming that he moved the United Nations under the wrong Article after Pakistan's invasion, thereby making it a party to the dispute instead of an aggressor.

Rijiju also said Nehru let the "myth" of a UN-mandated plebiscite perpetuate and created the "divisive" Article 370 of the Constitution. "Nehru rejected Maharaja Hari Singh's plea to accede to India not just once but thrice," he wrote on Twitter. The Lok Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Arunachal Pradesh also hit out at Hari Singh's son Karan Singh, saying he presented a "sanitised history, resorted to poor wordplay, and, that too, in a roundabout way to somehow extricate Nehru" on the then prime minister delaying the accession of Kashmir.

The law minister made these remarks in an opinion piece for the News 18 portal, which he shared on his Twitter handle. The fresh attack on the Congress slalwart came on his birth anniversary. "Nehru was aware even in June 1947 that all that Hari Singh wanted was to join the Indian dominion. Nehru stated as much in his note to Mountbatten (the last viceroy of India)," Rijiju wrote.

He said it was time for the citizens of the country to rebuff attempts to falsify history and stand true to the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. "The people of this region, along with the rest of India, deserve to know the truth of what actually happened during those tumultuous months and years," the minister wrote. (PTI)

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