New Delhi, Dec 13: After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for laying the blame for decades of instability in Jammu and Kashmir on his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, Union Minister for Sports and Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Thakur, tore into the grand old party and the country's first prime minister saying that he couldn't handle the responsibility of the erstwhile state.
The Union minister said, “History will never forgive former PM Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress. The nation's history holds witness to the wounds inflicted by the Congress on the country and its people for political benefits.”
Thakur said it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who, as the country's first Home Minister, united 553 princely states and laid the foundation for building a strong country.
“Under PM Jawaharlal Nehru, India lost 45,000 soldiers and people in Jammu and Kashmir. Articles 370 and 35A existed like deep wounds on the country. I wish to ask Rahul Gandhi who he holds responsible for the death of 45,000 people. China captured over 40,000 sq km of our land during the 1962 war. More than 3000 soldiers lost their lives. Who was responsible for that” the Union minister questioned.
He affirmed that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would have been a part of India had PM Nehru not called an early ceasefire during the war against Pakistan in 1947.
“The Congress should not try to hide its mistakes and find faults with history,” the BJP MP added.
Earlier, on Tuesday, Rahul attacked the Union Home Minister over his critique of Nehru during a debate in the Rajya Sabha on two draft legislations concerning Jammu and Kashmir, saying that he was “unaware of history” and “has a habit of rewriting it”.
Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament, Rahul accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of trying to distract attention from ‘real issues'.
“Pandit Nehru gave his life for India, he was in jail for years. Amit Shah-ji is unaware of our history. While I don't expect him to know our history, he has a habit of rewriting it,” Rahul said.
Saying the basic issues before the country today are a ‘caste-based census' and who are benefitting from public money, the Congress MP said, “They do not want to discuss these issues and run away from them. We will take these issues forward and make sure that the poor get what they deserve. Even our CM (Bhupesh Baghel) in Chhattisgarh was from the OBC community. They (BJP), too, announced an OBC CM but the bigger question before us is how many of them are represented in our polity and higher public offices? PM Modi is also from an OBC background but the government is run by 90 people of whom only 3 are OBCs and their offices are wedged in a corner. My question is about the participation of OBCs, Dalits and tribals in our institutional system. However, they talk about Jawaharlal Nehru and others to distract public attention from the larger issues.”
“They distract us 24 hours, sometimes speaking about Jawaharlal Nehru, sometimes about other issues. However, the issue of participation and representation,” Rahul said.
During the debate on the two Bills related to Jammu and Kashmir in the Upper House, Shah accused Nehru of “two major blunders” that he claimed were the root of decades of instability, violence and terror in Jammu and Kashmir.
