The Congress on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his criticism directed at Jawaharlal Nehru on the Kashmir issue, alleging that he has once again "whitewashed real history" and overlooked facts to "castigate" India's first prime minister.
Addressing a rally in Gujarat's Anand district on Monday, the prime minister stated that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel deftly resolved issues related to merger of other princely states, but "one person" could not settle the Kashmir issue, in a veiled attack on India's first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Slamming Prime Minister Modi, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, "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."
"Sheikh Abdullah championed accession to India entirely because of his friendship with and admiration for Nehru, and his respect for Gandhi," Ramesh said.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was okay with J&K joining Pakistan till September 13, 1947 when the Nawab of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan, Ramesh said.
Speaking in Gujarat, PM Modi had said, "Sardar saheb persuaded all the princely states to merge with India. But another person handled this one issue of Kashmir."
"As I am following the footsteps of Sardar saheb, I have values of the land of Sardar and that was the reason I resolved the problem of Kashmir and paid true tributes to Sardar Patel," he had said.
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