Accession Day: BJP blames Nehru, Congress targets Modi govt for plight of Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir | India News

NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress clashed once again on Thursday over the plight of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) and the condition in the Union territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir on the occasion of ‘Accession Day’. While the BJP blamed first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the violence and instability in the UT, the Congress held the incumbent Narendra Modi government responsible for the travail of the KPs.
On October 26, 1947, the then Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Hari Singh, signed the Instrument of Accession to become part of India. Since 2020, the country started celebrating Accession Day on October 26 across the UT.
On October 27, 1947, India accepted the Instrument of Accession and, on the same day, the Indian Army was inducted by the Indian Air Force at Budgam Airport to evict Pakistani forces from J&K.
October 27 is therefore celebrated as ‘Infantry Day’. This year, it is being observed as ‘Shaurya Diwas’ to commemorate the 75th year of air landed operations of the Indian Army at Budgam Airport in 1947, which ensured the first civil-military victory of Independent India.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh was in Srinagar on the day to preside over the main official function.
Congress targets Modi government
The Congress held a press conference on Thursday to hit out at the Modi government over the alleged targeted killings of the KPs and demanded a white paper on it.
Addressing the media persons, Congress spokesperson and chairperson of party’s media and publicity department Pawan Khera said the KPs stayed in an area like Shopian for 32 years. However, 15 KP families were forced to leave their ancestral home from Shopian on the same night as the nation was celebrating Diwali with gaiety.
He said when the KPs were first displaced in 1989, at that time the VP Singh government was actively being supported by BJP supremo Lal Krishna Advani. He alleged that the BJP did not even withdraw support to the government on the issue.
Khera alleged that the KP employees were being threatened with action if they did not join duty in the UT. “You can neither provide security to them nor have them displaced. But by forcibly keeping them there, you want to show to the world that everything is fine,” he said.
The Congress leader said there have been 30 targeted killings till October this year and yet the BJP was treating it as some normal thing. During the Congress period, clusters were created in Jagti township outside Jammu to settle the KPs. At that time, 4,500 Kashmiri Pandit employees were settled there and the situation had become normal, he said.
Khera added, “We demand the Modi government to issue a white paper on the condition of Kashmiri Pandits. It should include your acts of commissions and omissions. The prime minister will have to answer on the 30 target killings.”

BJP blames Nehru for J&K problem
The BJP squarely blamed Nehru for the violence and instability in J&K.
Union law minister Kiren Rijiju took the lead for the second time in a month to launch a frontal attack on Nehru. He had taken a similar position on October 12.
Rijiju named the day as the 75th anniversary of ‘Kashmir blunders of Nehru’. In a series of tweets, he recounted five “blunders” of Nehru on Kashmir “that hobbled India for the next seven decades”.
He wrote, “1) Rejecting Maharaja Hari Singh‘s request for accession in July 1947 itself to advance a personal agenda. 2) Declaring the eventual accession as Provisional 3) Approach UNO under Article 35 and NOT Article 51 4) Letting the myth perpetuate that UN mandated plebiscite was in any way an open question 5) Institutionalising the separatist mindset by creating Article 370.”
The minister lamented that seven decades were lost due to these “Nehruvian blunders” and that India paid a heavy price for it. Finally, history took a turn in 2019 when ‘India First’ became the only guiding principle, he said.
Rijiju tweeted, “Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji undid the five Kashmir Blunders of Nehru and annulled Article 370 and fully integrated the region with India.”
On October 12, Rijiju had sought to bust the “historical lie”, that Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on the question of accession of Kashmir with India. He was responding to the allegations levelled by Congress MP and chief of the party’s communications department Jairam Ramesh.
The minister extensively quoted Nehru’s speech from ‘Parliamentary Debates, House of the People’ dated July 24, 1952.
He said, “This ‘historical lie’, that Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on the question of accession of Kashmir with India has gone on for far too long in order to protect the dubious role of JL Nehru. Let me quote Nehru himself…”
Rijiju pointed out that after agreement with Sheikh Abdullah, the first time Maharaja Hari Singh approached Nehru for accession to India was in July 1947 itself, a full month before Independence. “It was Nehru who rebuffed the Maharaja,” he said.
He cited the excerpts from Nehru’s speech and said, “Here is Nehru in his own words on why it was not Maharaja Hari Singh who delayed Kashmir’s accession to India but Nehru himself.
Maharaja had approached in July 1947 itself, like all other Princely States. Other states were accepted. Kashmir was rejected.”
The excerpts quoting Nehru said: “In regard to Kashmir, even before the 15th August, I should imagine, in July, the question came up before us informally. And the advice we gave was that the State of Jammu and Kashmir, for a variety of reasons, occupied a very special place … when the question of Kashmir at first informally came up before us — it was always before us in a sense, but it came up before us informally roundabout July or the middle of July — the advice we gave to Kashmir State was — and, if I may say so, we had contacts with the Maharaja’s Government also, rather vague contacts, but they dealt with us — the advice we gave to both was that Kashmir is a special case and it would not be right or proper to try to rush things there, and the general principle we had laid down that the people of the State should be consulted specially applied to Kashmir. This was before Partition, before the actual coming of Independence. We made it clear that even if the Maharaja and his Government then wanted to accede to India, we would like something much more, that is, popular approval of it before we took that step.”
Nehru was further quoted as saying: “So we made it clear in the month of July 1947 that the State of Jammu and Kashmir should not be hustled into taking any action, though many of their leaders were personally inclined, but they knew their people too and they said that the initiative should come from the people and not merely from the Maharaja’s Government, only then it will endure. And so we informed the Maharaja’s Government as well as the leaders of the popular movement there that this matter of accession should not be hurried, that it should wait over till some method was found of consulting the people.”
According to Rijiju, Nehru also said: “At that time we received independent appeals both from the Maharaja’s Government and from the popular organisation of Kashmir. The appeals were for help and for accession to India. We gave long and very anxious consideration to these, tried to consider and think out the implications etc, and we had to come to a quick decision. I remember, it must have been the 27th of October, after practically an all day sitting in the evening we came to the conclusion that in spite of all the risks and dangers involved, we could not say ‘No’ to that appeal and that we had to go there to help them. It was not an easy matter…”

Giving his own observations, Rijiju said not only did Nehru reject Maharaja Hari Singh’s request for accession in July 1947, but also dithered in October 1947 as well. This when Pakistani invaders had reached within kilometers of Srinagar.
Summing it up, Rijiju said, “1) Maharaja wanted to join India in July 1947 itself 2) It was Nehru who rejected Hari Singh’s request 3) Nehru conjured up some ‘special’ case for Kashmir and wanted ‘much more’ than mere accession. What was that special case? Vote Bank politics?”
The minister asked why Kashmir was made the only exception by Nehru, where the princely ruler wanted to join India and yet Nehru wanted ‘much more’. “What was that much more?” he asked.
Rijiju said, “The truth is, India is still paying the price for Nehru’s follies. New India will no longer accept those sinful ‘lies’ which were orchestrated just to protect ‘One Person and One Family’.”