Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday charged the first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, with committing “five blunders” in regard to Kashmir, which he alleged “claimed unaccounted lives,” while also stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is setting right the mistakes of the past.
The Law Minister’s remarks came while talking about his article, “The 75th Anniversary of Five Nehruvian Blunders on Kashmir” on the anniversary of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India in 1947. Rijiju alleged that due to the mistakes of the then Prime Minister Nehru, Kashmir has “unnecessarily become an issue” and said that it is “important to take out the fault” and set a “correct narrative”.
Speaking to ANI, Rijiju said, “Dr Ambedkar had rightly said, those who forget their history cannot create history. So it is important that we realise the mistakes. What our first Prime Minister, Nehru, did to Kashmir has caused so much tragedy. It has drained the national wealth. It has taken away the unaccounted lives of the jawans and civilians. And because of that blunder, today, Kashmir has unnecessarily become an issue. It is important that we take the fault and build on that and set a correct narrative. The blunders committed by Nehru have been undone and corrected by PM Modi.”
“That is why I thought today was a perfect anniversary, the perfect occasion to bring out the truth in front of the people of the country. What I have done is simply to take the facts before the nation. Whatever Nehru ji had said in Parliament, whatever he had stated in our constituent assembly, and whatever he did, all were part of the documents,,” he added.