Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday (6th December) addressed the Lok Sabha on the ongoing debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.
Defending the abolition of Article 370 and Article 35A, Shah responded to the Congress’s repeated challenge in the past to the Centre’s claims that terror incidents had declined in the valley.
The Union Home Minister also listed the several steps the Central government had undertaken to counter terrorism, eliminate separatism and restore normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir.
In the latter part of his speech, Shah explained why he approved the usage of the words “Nehruvian blunder”, which was objected to by the Opposition benches. “I want to support the usage of the word Nehruvian blunder. Kashmir had to suffer due to the blunder that had happened during Nehru’s rule,” the Home Minister said.
Notably, before Shah’s address, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in his address asked for a dedicated debate on Kashmir and Nehru’s contribution and mistakes regarding the same. In response, Amit Shah said that he is ready. What followed is this.
Amit Shah listed the the two big mistakes made by Nehru during his time as Prime Minister because of which Kashmir had to suffer for years to come.
“Two mistakes that happened due to the decision of (former PM) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru due to which Kashmir had to suffer for many 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,” he said.
#WATCH | Union Home Minister Amit Shah says, "Two mistakes that happened due to the decision of (former PM) Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru due to which Kashmir had to suffer for many years. The first is to declare a ceasefire – when our army was winning, the ceasefire was imposed. If… pic.twitter.com/3TMm8fk5O1
— ANI (@ANI) December 6, 2023
The Home Minister then quoted former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from his letter to Sheikh Abdullah derived from Nehru Memorial and Library, Jawaharlal Nehru collection, JNSC 143.
Quoting Nehru, Amit Shah read the excerpt which was as follows, “After the experience with the United Nations (UN), I have concluded that a satisfactory result cannot be expected from there. I considered this a good decision (ceasefire) but this matter was not dealt with properly. We could have deliberated some more on the ceasefire and come out with a better solution. And I think this was a mistake we made in the past.”
Amit Shah then looked at the Opposition benches and asked if they had an objection to this. The Congress replied with a yes only to be immediately countered by Shah that they could not object because these were Nehru’s words.
“Why are you telling me Nehru Nehru Nehru, Nehru has himself said this,” he told the Opposition in a fierce counter. The Congress then began to outrage and eventually staged a walkout.
Earlier today, Union Minister Jitendra Singh also took a jibe at the Congress saying that those who did not implement the Constitution of India in J&K are today teaching those who sacrificed 3 generations to implement the Constitution in the valley.
Singh said, “One of the consequences of what historians have termed the “Nehruvian Blunder” was the delayed integration of Jammu and Kashmir into India in 1947. Nehru’s belief that he had a better understanding of Jammu and Kashmir than his own Home Minister, Sardar Patel, contributed to this delay.”
He added that Nehru dismissed Mukherjee’s concerns about Article 370 which were reiterated by former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri during a debate in the House in 1963.
“In 1963, Pandit Nehru himself acknowledged the need to address Article 370. However, neither Nehru nor subsequent governments took concrete steps to repeal Article 370, allowing it to become an entrenched political issue,” the Union Minister said.
