Cong warns BJP on Team Anna taking opposition party space

“Why the opposition space is being conceded by BJP to pretenders and non-governmental types. If (L K) Advani can throw some light on this, he would make a significant contribution in the political analysis of the country,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.

The Congress leader was reacting to Advani’s latest post  in his blog criticising Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for his “failure” to settle the Kashmir issue and said that Congress today had become the “fiefdom of a single family”.

“Our country has paid an incalculable price for Nehruji’s failure to settle the Kashmir issue once and for all in India’s favour at the time of Partition. Nehruji’s blunder was totally avoidable,” Advani wrote in his blog.

Pakistan’s first war against India in 1947 to capture Kashmir through force and subterfuge had given Nehruji’s government an excellent opportunity not only to fully beat back the invaders but also to resolve the Kashmir issue with Pakistan once and for all, Advani stated.

“India frittered away a second big opportunity to settle the Kashmir issue once and for all in the 1971 India-Pak war, in which Pakistan was not only roundly defeated but India had as many as 90,000 Pakistani PoWs,” he added.

Golden opportunities

Dismissing L K Advani’s claims, Tewari said that senior BJP leader did not want to tell that 1947 and 1971 were the occasions when India had golden opportunities in its history.

The Congress leader also criticised Advani for raking up the issue of Article 370 in his blog, saying Jansangh and BJP had also been part of the problems in the country, not solutions.

Tewari said that BJP kept  doing such propaganda as they feel bad about people giving Congress an opportunity to serve them for as many as 52 years.

On Advani’s remarks that the office of Prime Minister was reserved either for the nominee or a member of the Nehru family, Tewari said that the veteran BJP leader had been suffering from “selective amnesia” and had forgotten that Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were chosen prime ministers as people voted for them.

“Sonia Gandhi is also the president of the party for that very reason,” the Congress leader added.