Nehru's intervention in Patel's functioning behind J&K's present situation: Minister

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday blamed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, saying if he had not interfered in the functioning of Sardar Patel (then Home Minister), the situation would have been different in the state.

Intervening during a debate in the Lok Sabha on a presidential proclamation imposing President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh launched a veiled attack on Congress calling it a "rasoighar ki party (party of kitchen)".

Singh said the reason to implement President's rule in the state was that no party came forward to stake its claim to form government there.

Explaining the political situation in the state that led to the imposition of President's Rule, he said that the BJP formed a coalition with People's Democratic Party (PDP) amid a fractured mandate.

"It was the people's mandate. Had we not formed the government, the people would had blamed us that we fled and did not form the government," he said.

As Singh was speaking, Congress Mallikarjun Kharge suggested the minister that the BJP should learn from the history what Nehru did.

Singh aggressively countered it.

"The current situation in Kashmir is an outcome of a series of blunders of successive Congress governments in the state starting with the Nehruvian blunder," he said.

"If Nehru had not intervened in the functioning of Patel, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir would have been different today," Singh said.

Referring to the Central government's view towards Jammu and Kashmir and attacking the Congress, Singh said: "We are ready for elections. We are not a party of kitchen where things are decided by mother and son while eating their food.

"Elections in Jammu and Kashmir were opposed by those who ruined the state in over 50 years," he said.

He said BJP's history was linked with the state, and that its leader Shayama Prasad Mukherjee's sacrifice was the biggest example of that.

--IANS

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