The Congress Friday hit back at Home Minister Amit Shah for blaming former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the political problems in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the NDA-BJP government was responsible for the state of affairs there.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said delving intohistory and selective blaming, finger pointing is not going to take thegovernment anywhere in terms of how to tackle and resolve the problem in Jammuand Kashmir.
Earlier in the day, Shah said in the Lok Sabha that Nehruwas responsible for the politicalproblems and terrorism in the state.
Hitting back, Tewari said, “The Home minister failed totake responsibility which lies squarely at his door or the door of the NDA-BJPgovernment. If the situation has come to such a pass in Jammu and Kashmir, itwas the policies of the central government and their (BJP) alliance with thePDP which was responsible.”
Shah chose not to answer in the Lok Sabha if things werenormal in the state as the government claims.
Tiwari asked if the Election Commission could hold electionsto Parliament in the state just a month back why has the government soughtextension of President’s rule. He also sought to know what was the hesitationand intent behind not holding immediate elections to the state assembly.
“If you look at the history of counter-insurgencies allover the world, hard power works to a point and then soft power has to takeover and that is why many complex issues in various parts of the country,including the northeast were resolved by a combination of hard power and softpower, which successive governments used,” he said.
“There was no indication in Shah’s speech whether thatequilibrium, which is essential to maintain fragile or a sensitive situationwas anywhere within the contemplation of the NDA-BJP government. Of course,what did the Home minister do, he took refuge in history,” he said.
Tewari said the BJP has a certain narrative about Jammu andKashmir, but what is extremely unfortunate “is this continuousembellishment and the selective use of untruths in order to try and built a newhistory of what happened in the past 70 years in the state”.
In his blistering attack on Nehru and the Congress, Shahalleged that the policies of previous Congress governments widened the wedgebetween the people of the state and the country.
“Today one-third of Kashmir is not with us. Whoannounced ceasefire when Pakistan encroached in Kashmir after independence andoccupied one-third of its territory?
“Jawaharlal Nehru announced ceasefire and Pakistan tookaway that part of Kashmir,” he said.
The Congress leader accused the ruling party of adoptingdiversionary tactics to escape responsibility for the present state in Jammuand Kashmir.Tewari said it is unfortunate that rather thancoming up with answers for pertinent questions raised by the Opposition, thegovernment tried to “deflate, obfuscate and escape” from answers forthe present situation in Jammu and Kashmir.