Amit Shah attacks Jawaharlal Nehru, claims ‘blunder’ in Jammu and Kashmir

Congress icon and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had committed a blunder by implementing Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, union home minister Amit Shah said on Monday at an election rally in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur. He lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for putting an end to the controversial law and raising the Indian flag in Kashmir.

“PM Modi has fulfilled all the promises that we made since the foundation of the BJP. Former PM Jawaharlal Nehru committed a blunder by implementing Article 370 in Kashmir. PM Modi put an end to Article 370 on August 5, 2019, and raised the Indian flag in Kashmir,” he said.

Amit Shah also praised PM Modi for laying the foundation stone for Ayodhya’s Ram Temple. He accused the Congress of ignoring the Ram Temple issue for decades.

“For 70 years, the Congress party has diverted from the issue of the Ram Temple at ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ but PM Modi has not only laid the foundation stone but also did the ‘Pran Pratistha’ on January 22,” he said.

Amit Shah’s mention of Nehru came on a day when external affairs minister S Jaishankar accused the former prime minister of considering the Katchatheevu island a “nuisance”.

“In an observation given by the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1961, he wrote, ‘I attach no importance at all to this little island and I would have no hesitation in giving up our claim to it. I do not like matters like this pending indefinitely and being raised again and again in parliament.’ So, to Pandit Nehru, this was a little island, it had no importance, he saw it as a nuisance… For him, the sooner you give it away, the better…” he said.

This is not the first time that Amit Shah blamed Nehru for Jammu and Kashmir’s problems.

Last year, in the Lok Sabha, Amit Shah said Nehru had committed two major blunders in the erstwhile state — declaring a ceasefire without winning entire Kashmir (during India-Pakistan war in 1948) and taking the dispute with Pakistan to the United Nations.

“I support the word that was used here — Nehruvian blunder. Because of the blunder that was committed during the time of Nehru, Kashmir had to suffer. With responsibility, I want to say that the two blunders that happened during the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru, which forced Kashmir to suffer for years. The first is to declare a ceasefire – when our army was winning, the ceasefire was imposed. If there had been a ceasefire after three days, PoK would have been a part of India today…The second is to take our internal issue to the UN,” Shah had said.

Amit Shah will visit Karnataka today. He will address the Sakti Kendra Pramukh Sammelan at Palace Ground in Bengaluru.