Finance Minister Arun Jailtey on Thursday maintained in the Rajya Sabha that mistakes made by the Congress had led to alienation among people in Kashmir and rejected its charge that the process had started in the last four and a half years.
Participating in a discussion on the imposition of president’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, he asserted that when history will give its verdict on the role of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and that of BJP ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the “Congress will feel the pain”.
Rebutting the allegations levelled against the BJP-led government by leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, the finance minister said it was wrong to say that alienation started in the state in the last four years. He also defended BJP forming alliance with the PDP in the state to run a coalition government.
Jaitley said there “is a history of alienation, there are policies” and noted that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir for successive years including in 1957, 1962 and 1967 were not fair and Congress had also indulged in destabilising governments.
“If elections are held in such a manner, it will sow seeds of alienation. The people of the state felt they do not have right to contest polls. This is the politics you did to stay in power”, he said.
Jaitley said people of the Valley still recall that the first “free and fair elections” in the state were held after Morarji Desai became Prime Minister in 1977. He said the Congress government led by Nehru had “committed a series of mistakes in Kashmir”.
“You had put all your eggs in one basket”, he said, and added that the Congress government had to “change its policy and arrest the National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah”.
“At one point in time, Congress party became National Conference. Congress didn’t exist at that time, it was created later, but Congress-NC literally merged. Some NC leaders went to jail and those outside made the Plebiscite Front which made a false assurance with the people for which this nation has to pay a price for generations together. You came to power, but forgot your history how you made it to that power,” he said.
“How was 1957, 1962 and 1967 election conducted in the state? Perhaps there hasn’t been such a fraud played with democracy in its entire history by the then Congress leaders. In Kashmir Valley, there was a district magistrate Abdul Khaliq who made a law that in the entire Valley, all nominations will be (filed) before one person. When people would go to file nominations, he would go missing. They couldn’t file nominations. And those who filed the nominations, he would reject their nominations. Sometimes 22, sometimes 25 and sometimes 27. Where you had no vote, your candidate would come as a winner uncontested. That way you came to power,” Jaitley said. “If you would play such a fraud, and sow seeds of alienation, and just to remain in power, you play this politics, then you should stop accusing us of alienating the people in J&K.”
There were two types of MLAs elected “one by Khaliq and one by people.”
He said the Indira-Sheikh Abdullah agreement was reached in 1975 but disagreements cropped up soon.
The minister said the then state governor BK Nehru refused to play the Centre’s game to destabilise the Farooq Abdullah government in 1984 and stepped down. He said a new governor was appointed and a new government was formed by breaking the National Conference.
Jaitley said Congress again joined hands with Farooq Abdullah in 1986 and ran a government till 1989 which caused “so much alienation which the valley had never seen”.
The minister said the “problem of stone-pelting erupted around 2010 after militants and separatists realised that the capacity of the security forces was getting better and their tactics were proving futile”.
He said the separatists realised that there was a “consensus in the world that nobody can be allowed to enjoy the fruits of militancy” and organisations such as Hurriyat Conference “sought to start masked disobedience by encouraging people, including students, to pelt stones at forces. There has been a reduction in incidents of stone-pelting over the past few years”.
Jaitley targeted Congress over the death of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder S P Mookerjee in custody, saying he gave away his life due to “barriers you erected”.
Mookerjee was opposed to the provision in the Constitution for a separate Jammu and Kashmir constitution.
Jaitley said his sacrifice “is a very unpleasant chapter of history” and asked Congress not to “gloss over sacrifices by people”.
“When history will give its verdict on the roles of Jawaharlal Nehru and Syama Prasad Mukherjee, you will feel the pain”, he said.
The minister said it would be better not to indulge in blame-game. It was necessary to learn from the mistakes made in the past and work for peace and progress, he said.
He said that regional parties had a role to play in Jammu and Kashmir and the national parties could form alliances despite ideological differences.
Jaitley said a new force had emerged in the state following the panchayat elections.