Adhir demands discussion on Kashmir issue, Nehru’s role

New Delhi, Dec 6 (IANS) Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday took a swipe at the government saying that when it comes to the Kashmir issue, BJP leaders unnecessarily criticise first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

He demanded a day-long discussion specifically on Nehru’s role in Kashmir.

Participating in the debate on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, Chowdhury said that whenever a discussion takes place in the Parliament, the BJP members bring the role of Nehru and always claim the first prime minister was “desh ke liye hanikarak (harmful for the country)”.

Responding to this, Home Minister Amit Shah said he is ready for the discussion. 

Shah also said that he never said Nehru was “haanikarak (harmful)” for the country and always said that he only asks what was the root cause of Kashmir problem and the role of the people at that time should be discussed.

“Nobody from our benches states that he was haanikarak (harmful),” Shah said.

Chowdhury also referred to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's famous lines of 'Insaniyat, Kashmiriyat and Jamhuriat' and asked the BJP leaders if they were following it.

Chowdhury said that the Congress leaders were tired of listening to this kind of criticism and stressed that he was verbally demanding that a debate be held on Kashmir and Nehru.

He also said that Shah had promised to bring peace in Kashmir but he failed to fulfill his promise.

Chowdhury said that Hari Singh signed standstill agreement with Pakistan, which Nehru and India never accepted.

The Congress MP also listed various terror incidents during the Modi government’s tenure to claim that terrorism was on the rise there.

Talking about the Pulwama attack in 2019, the Congress leader said it was the deadliest attack in three decades and it was avoidable as our 40 personnel died.

"It happened due to the government’s incompetency, according to former Governor Satya Pal Malik," Chowdhury said.

He also said that by the forum of Human Rights in J&K between 2019 and 2022, 71 CRPF troops lost their lives doubling the toll.

He said that between April 2023 and November 2023, a total of 23 army and security personnel have lost their lives.

On August 9, the MHA reported to Rajya Sabha that between 2018 to 2020 Jammu and Kashmir experienced 761 terrorist incidents which resulted in 174 civilian deaths.

He also said that highest number of attacks took place in 2018. He also said that as per reply in Rajya Sabha 99 security personnel in J&K between August 2019 and April 2022. In the preceding five years 460 security personnel were killed.

He also said that after the abrogation of Article 370 as per a RTI report the number of terror incident has increased, increasing from 151 incidents in 2014 to 191 incident till August 2022. "Now tell me if I am wrong," he said referring to the number of more incidents from 2014 to 2022.

Meanwhile, Congress MP Manish Tewari also said that validating the assertion that he made yesterday during the debate on the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2019 that the strategy to abrogate Article 370.

“The State of Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories was laid in December 2018 when the Presidential notification of December 19, 2018 imposing Presidents rule in Jammu and Kashmir suspended the second proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution of India that mandates that before reorganising a state the Legislative Assembly of that State has to be mandatorily consulted,” he said. 

Tewari alleged that "this was never done".

The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill were passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

 --IANS

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