BJP and Congress leaders clash over Jawaharlal Nehru’s Kashmir legacy on 133rd birth anniversary

While Congress accuses BJP Ministers of targeting Nehru every day, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor Purushottam Agrawal urges Law Minister to know the difference between ‘accession and standstill’

Writer Purushottam Agrawal addresses during Nehru Memorial Lecture, organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, in New Delhi on November 14, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI

Launching a fresh attack on India’s first Prime Minister, the late Jawaharlal Nehru, on his handling of the Kashmir issue on his 133rd birth anniversary, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on November 14, 2022 claimed that Nehru moved the United Nations under the wrong Article after Pakistan’s invasion and thereby made it a party to the dispute instead of an aggressor.

While Union Minister Hardeep Puri also called the move a “monumental blunder”, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi shared Mr. Rijiju’s opinion on his Twitter handle.

Hitting back, Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had opened a department that is regularly used by Ministers to abuse national leaders.

Former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Professor and former Union Public Service Commission member Purushottam Agrawal, who delivered the Nehru Memorial Lecture, urged the Law Minister to know the difference between “accession and standstill” by the erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir ruler Maharaja Hari Singh.

In his fresh attack, the Law Minister said Nehru had 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,” Mr. Rijiju tweeted. He also hit out at Hari Singh’s son Karan Singh, saying the latter 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.

Mr. Rijiju made these remarks in an opinion piece for a news portal, and shared it on his Twitter handle. ”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), Mr. Rijiju wrote, adding that 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.

Responding to such attacks during the Nehru Memorial Lecture event, Mr. Venugopal said, “I think Modi-ji created a portfolio, a department, for abusing national leaders. Ministers are given that responsibility. Every day, their duty is to abuse national leaders like Gandhi-ji, Pandit-ji, Indira-ji and Rajiv-ji.”

“The proposition sent by Maharaja Hari Singh in July was not for accession but for standstill. He had sent the proposal for a standstill not only to India but also to Pakistan...In an effort to troll Nehru, you [Mr. Rijiju] have forgotten the difference between ‘standstill’ and ‘accession’. This is not good. The Kashmir policy of Nehru was not his but his government’s policy,” Mr. Agrawal said, while delivering the Nehru Memorial Lecture.

“It was accepted by Pakistan but not by India, which did the right thing. Imagine if India would have accepted the standstill agreement and then there would have been what was in reality an attack by Pakistan, and India would have intervened, then under international law [it would have been said] that the dispute was between Kashmir and Pakistan and why was India intervening,” Mr. Agrawal noted.