Amid rumours in the Valley about the abrogation of Article 35A of the Constitution, BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday vowed to rectify the “blunders committed” by the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, in dealing with J&K after Partition.
“I am giving this message from Jammu that the Narendra Modi government is committed to rectify the mistakes of the great-grandfather of Congress president Rahul Gandhi,” Shah said while addressing a rally organised by the party to pay tributes to Pulwama martyrs.
As large numbers of party workers raised slogans against Articles 370 and 35A amid Shah’s speech, the BJP president seized the opportunity to attack the Congress by shifting the blame on Nehru for conferring the special status on J&K. “Problems of Hyderabad and Junagarh were more complex as compared to Kashmir, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had resolved these with conviction and vision. However, Nehru, who handled the Kashmir issue himself, failed to resolve it,” Shah said.
Although Shah avoided mentioning Articles 370 and 35A directly, he repeatedly invoked Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Praja Parishad leader Prem Nath Dogra in his 37-minute speech to resolve the party’s commitment to repeal the provisions.
He started his speech by recalling Mookerjee’s “murder” in Kashmir for opposing Article 370.
Mookerjee and Dogra had launched ‘Ek Vidhan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Nishan’ movement in early 1950s against the granting of the special status to J&K. Mookerjee was arrested upon entering J&K on May 11, 1953. He died during his detention in June 1953 in Srinagar jail.
Asserting that the place where Mookerjee had sacrificed his life “belonged to us”, Shah referred to the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. He said, “their (CRPF men’s) sacrifice will not go in vain”.
His resolve to rectify the “blunders” of Nehru is significant as for the last two days normal life has been paralysed in the Kashmir valley due to a shutdown called by separatist leadership after rumours erupted that the government is going to repeal Article 35A.
Shah also lashed out at the Peoples Democratic Party and National Conference for discriminating against Jammu and Ladakh regions.
“Earlier when grants were released by the Centre for the development of all three regions, the people of Jammu and Ladakh were ignored. He added that Jammu and Ladakh were often discriminated against during the Congress rule… It was the BJP that opened doors of development for Ladakh and Jammu regions,” he said
