PM Modi completed Nehru's unfinished task by abrogating Article 370: Dr Jitendra

New Delhi, Dec 8 : Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the Congress party should be grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi because he had completed Jawaharlal Nehru's unfinished task by abrogating Article 370.

“Nehru and the Congress party had accepted Article 370 of the constitution as temporary but allowed it to continue because over the years, the Congress and its allies like National Conference developed a vested interest in its continuance,”he said.

The Union Minister added that later, the continuance of terrorism and militancy also became a vested interest for these parties because it enabled them to get elected and form government with mere 10 percent or less voting and thus continue their dynasty rule, generation after generation .

According to a press release, in an exclusive interview at a media summit here Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that Article 370 was included in the Indian Constitution despite reservations from Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in the Constituent Assembly. “To pacify Mukherjee, the exact words used by Jawaharlal Nehru were " Yeh (370) ghiste ghiste ghis jayegi,”he said.

“Later the continuance of terrorism and militancy also became a vested interest for these parties because it enabled them to get elected and form government with mere 10 percent or less voting and thus continue their dynasty rule, generation after generation ,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, if only the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed his Home Minister Sardar Patel to handle Jammu and Kashmir in the same manner as Sardar Patel was handling the other princely States of India, the history of Indian subcontinent would have been different and PoJK would have been a part of India.

The Union Minister alleged that successive governments over the years have backed out of the historic 1994 unanimous Parliament resolution on Jammu and Kashmir.

“Government’s consistent and principled position, as also enunciated in the Parliament resolution adopted unanimously by both Houses on February 22 1994, is that the entire Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and shall be an integral part of India. In addition, Pakistan will be made to withdraw from PoJK, says the resolution,” he said.

“No referendum or plebiscite was mandated in any other erstwhile princely states during the unification of India, but why an exception was made when Nehru spoke of referendum in the case of J&K and created a political controversy for the years to come” he asked.

One of the blunders, said the Minister, was to declare unilateral ceasefire precisely by PM Nehru when the Indian Army was about to retrieve back the areas of J&K captured by Pakistan which are now part of PoJK.

The Minister said that the unilateral ceasefire declaration by the then Prime Minister Nehru also led to loss of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. He said that such decisions are still costing India for its land and resources.

Dr Jitendra Singh has said, votaries of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir were the biggest abusers of this Constitutional provision in order to sustain themselves in power and serve their political interests.

“Jammu and Kashmir suffered a long nightmare of blunder, blackmail and deceit propagated by vested interests,” he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh, who is an elected MP from Udhampur constituency of J&K Union Territory, said redemption came in the form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he abrogated Article 370 in August 2019 and liberated the people of Jammu and Kashmir and integrated the UTs of Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh into the national mainstream.