After Rijiju criticises Nehru over Jammu and Kashmir, Congress asks PM to rein in ministers from making 'false statements'

The Congress on Saturday demanded an apology from Union minister Kiren Rijiju over his criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru's handling of the Kashmir issue and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rein in ministers from making "irresponsible statements".

Hitting out at Rijiju, the Opposition party said insulting the country's first prime minister's contribution and memory is "unacceptable" and demanded that the minister withdraws his statement.

Rijiju had stated that Nehru's "blunders", which, he said, included enacting Article 370 and taking the dispute with Pakistan to the United Nations, caused much tragedy, drained the country's resources and cost thousands of lives of soldiers and civilians in militancy.

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Rijiju wrote an article for a portal citing "five Nehruvian blunders", including floating the idea of a plebiscite and terming Jammu and Kasmir's accession provisional.

The minister had said it was important to realise past mistakes to build a new future and added that he has not tweaked history but stated facts to set the record straight.

Slamming Rijiju, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said, "I can only pity the mental bankruptcy of minister Rijiju. He has no understanding of history, there is no proof, no evidence."

"I would say the prime minister should rein in ministers from making such untrue, false and irresponsible statements as have been made in this regard. The account of that period in 1947 has been carefully documented not by one but more than one person who were directly associated with the merger of princely states," Sharma told reporters.

Noting that the department of states worked on the integration of the princely states, he said then secretary V P Menon worked directly on this and reported to then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

"So it was not Nehru as PM, it was the home ministry that was given the responsibility to undertake this onerous task, a national mission, and to supervise the process as per the legal provisions which flowed out of the Indian Independence Act that the British parliament passed and the princely states which wanted to merge had to sign the instrument of accession," Sharma said.

There was no delay on the part of the government and it was Maharaja Hari Singh who was dithering for a few months, he said.

"There was not a single day's delay. The day the instrument of accession was received, the same day it was accepted by the Union cabinet. I rubbish completely what minister Rijiju has said," the senior Congress leader said.

Nehru was a front-ranking leader of the freedom struggle who spent maximum time in British prisons, Sharma said, adding insult to his contribution and memory is unacceptable.

"The minister should apologize and withdraw his statement. It does not behove a cabinet minister to deliberately mislead and undertake propaganda which is contradicted by facts of history," he said.

The BJP on Thursday had used the 75th anniversary of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India to slam Nehru for his "blunders" on the issue and asserted that Prime Minister Modi corrected them by nullifying Article 370, which granted the erstwhile state special rights.

BJP leaders, including Union ministers Rijiju and Jitendra Singh, targeted Nehru for his handling of the erstwhile state's accession.

The Congress had hit back at the ruling party, saying its leaders have no idea of contemporary history and that they must account for what has happened under its rule there rather than blaming Nehru and other former prime ministers.