‘Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Was Not Averse to Jammu and Kashmir Joining Pakistan’: Congress Counters PM Narendra Modi’s Claims on Jawaharlal Nehru

New Delhi, October 11: The Congress on Tuesday countered the claims of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the issue of J&K was not resolved by India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
Even though PM Modi did not take the name of Nehru, the Congress said he should check the facts first. The party blamed Maharaja Hari Singh, the then ruler of the J&K for not acceding to India soon after Independence, but took the decision only after invaders from Pakistan tried to take over the place.Jairam Ramesh, the Congress General Secretary in-charge of the Communication department cited Rajmohan Gandhi's book and said, “The PM has once again whitewashed REAL history. He overlooks the following facts only to castigate Nehru on J&K. All this has been documented well in Rajmohan Gandhi's biography of Sardar Patel. These facts are also known to the PM's new man in J&K.”
Jairam was referring to Ghulam Nabi Azad, who resigned from the Congress and formed a new political party. Jairam Further said, “Maharaja Hari Singh dithered on accession. There were dreams of independence. But when Pakistan invaded, Hari Singh acceded to India Sardar Patel was okay with J&K joining Pakistan till Sept 13 1947 when the Nawab of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan.”But Jairam pointed out that, “Sheikh Abdullah championed accession to India entirely because of his friendship with and admiration for Nehru, and his respect for Gandhi.” Jairam quoted from Rajmohan Gandhi's book — ‘Patel: A Life' by Rajmohan Gandhi page 439 and page 591 (1991).“Vallabhbhai's lukewarmness about Kashmir had lasted until September 13 1947. That morning, in a letter to Baldev Singh, he had indicated that “if (Kashmir) decides to join the other Dominion,” he would accept the fact. His attitude changed later that day when he heard that Pakistan had accepted Junagadh's accession”.