After a ruckus in Lok Sabha, Congress MPs staged a walkout. They termed the home minister’s comments as an insult to the former prime minister.
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Jammu and Kashmir suffered because of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s two “historic blunders” – first announcing the ceasefire and then going to the United Nations, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said here on Wednesday.
He said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) would have been part of India today if the right steps had been taken by the former prime minister, Shah said while replying to the debate on two bills – the Jammu and Kashmir reservation (amendment) bill, 2023 and Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation (amendment) bill, 2023 in Lok Sabha.
Shah’s comments on “Nehruvian blunders” led to an uproar in the house, with Congress leaders terming it as an insult to the former prime minister. Congress later staged a walkout.
The two bills were introduced in Parliament on July 26 but were taken up for discussion on Tuesday.
The home minister asserted that Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes because of the “vote-bank” politics by the parties in Kashmir, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has ensured these people get their “rights with respect”.
“Nehru himself wrote to Sheikh Abdullah, admitting that when our army was winning, we should not have agreed to the ceasefire. He admitted they could have negotiated better (at the UN). PoK, which is ours anyway, would have been with us today if the right steps were taken. So much land of the country was lost. I say these were not mistakes. These were two historic blunders, Nehruvian blunders, due to which Kashmir had to suffer.”
The J&K reservation bill seeks to provide reservation in jobs and admission in professional institutions to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other socially and educationally backward classes. The J&K reorganisation bill provides for a reorganisation of the erstwhile state of J&K into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir (with elected legislatures) and Ladakh (without an elected legislature). It seeks to increase the number of seats to 90 from 83 in the J&K assembly – a number fixed by the delimitation commission earlier this year. It also reserves seven seats for scheduled castes and nine for scheduled tribes.