Congress was ‘short-sighted’ during Partition: Hardeep Singh Puri

Mr. Puri said over 20 million people were affected by partition. Entire trainloads of people were killed and serious mistakes were made by the adminstration of the time

Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri addresses during an event of 75 Great personalities who faced tragedy of partition, at the Partition Horrors Remembrance Day being organized by Ministry of Culture at Partition Museum, Dara Shikoh Library, Ambedkar University, in New Delhi on August 14, 2023. | Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the Congress government was “short-sighted” during partition which had devastating consequences for the people. He was attending an event on Partition Horror Remembrance Day as the guest of honor.

The event was hosted at the freshly inaugurated Partition Museum in Ambedkar University and organised by the Ministry of Culture. Mr. Puri spoke about the horrors of partition and how his family was one of many that lived through the reality of displacements. Mr. Puri said “Who did what, whose fault, it is all documented, there was one man Mahatma Gandhi, who saw what was happening and it happened in spite of his being aware.” 

Don’t forget the horror

Mr. Puri said people should not forget the horrors that were perpetrated. Over 20 million people were affected by partition. Entire trainloads of people were killed and these horrors were caused by mistakes in decision making by the then government which could’ve been avoided and that’s why we must recall the partition so that these mistakes are not made again. 

During another event, ‘Exhibition on Horrors of Partition’, jointly organised by the Partition Museum, IGNCA and Ministry of Culture, at the residence of Rakesh Sinha, MP Rajya Sabha, Mr. Puri continued his attacks on the Congress Government that ruled India during the partition. He said, “Anyone with even a nodding acquaintance of governance would’ve known that when you divide people artificially, the human devastation will be unprecedented.” He said Congress leaders tend to give in easily and not fight for India.

Partition an RSS idea

Speaking to The Hindu, Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera responded to the Union Minister’s comments. He said, “It looks like Mr. Puri had to surrender his intellect and integrity while joining the BJP.”  

Mr. Khera said Bhai Parmanand of the Hindu Mahasabha was the first to propose population exchange on communal lines in 1908-09. He also brought up the examples of Dr. B.S. Munje — an ideologue of the RSS — who proposed the idea of partition in the Awadh session of Hindu Mahasabha in 1923 and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar speaking about partition in the Gandhinagar session of the Hindu Mahasabha in 1937.