Srinagar, Oct 26: Terming
former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru responsible for delayed
integration of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of India, Union Minister
Jitendra Singh Monday asserted that accession of J&K with India was
final and complete.
Singh said “If
there was a delay of over two months, it was not on account of Maharaja
Hari Singh but on account of the then Prime Minister Nehru who was not
forthcoming in his approach and was instead being led by cues and inputs
from Sheikh Abdullah (former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir)”.
He
said if the first Home Minister of the country Sardar Patel had been
given a free hand to handle the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir just
as he was handling the other princely states of undivided India, not
only the history of the Indian subcontinent would have been different,
but also the accession of the state would have happened much earlier.
“The
part of Jammu and Kashmir presently under Pakistan, would have also
been a part of independent India,” the minister claimed.
He
further said history has been unfair to Maharaja Hari Singh and hoped
that in the changed milieu of today, the record will be put straight and
all the misgivings cleared for the benefit of future generations. The
minister said historians need to address why Prime Minister Nehru
violated the democratic propriety by intruding into the domain of his
own Home Minister Sardar Patel.
“To
put the record straight, it was in fact finally Sardar Patel’s
intervention which facilitated the landing of the Indian forces in
Srinagar and saved the rest of the parts of the state also from being
occupied by Pakistan”, Singh said.
He
claimed that the then Prime Minister chose backdoor parleys with
Abdullah over a free and frank discussion with Maharaja Hari Singh, who
was at that time the legitimate and official head of the princely state
of Jammu and Kashmir. He said the draft of the Instrument of Accession
(IoA) signed by Maharaja Hari Singh was the same as that signed by the
heads of other princely states, without any conditions or terms
attached.
“Article 370 and 35-A were
anomalous additions which came later after Hari Singh had relinquished
the throne”, Singh said. The instrument of accession was signed on
October 26, 1947 between Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of princely
state of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Indian government to accede J-K to
independent India. (KINS)
