“My father Sheikh Abdullah was put by Jawaharlal Nehru in jail but still I won’t abuse him as it is due to Nehru that Kashmir today is a part of India,” National Conference’s veteran leader Farooq Abdullah told News18 in an exclusive interview, a day after Union home minister Amit Shah had blamed Nehru for the missteps taken by him on the Kashmir situation.
“They (BJP) want to tarnish Nehru, did he do nothing in 17 years? If Nehru was not there, Kashmir would have not been a part of India. Let me tell you frankly…Kashmir would never have been part of India. It (Pakistan) is a Muslim-majority country and we would have gone to Pakistan. It was Nehru who saw to it that it stays with India. This they forget. I don’t know what hatred they have for Nehru in their mind, I don’t understand. My father was put by Nehru in jail, still I am not the one who will abuse him because he did so much for this nation. This nation can never forget what he has done for us. Today, if we are standing proudly, the basis of that nation was set by Nehru,” Abdullah told News18 outside Parliament.
Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Amit Shah attributed the problems Kashmir has been facing for over the past 70 years to Nehru’s “two blunders”, and said Nehru’s biggest mistake was that when Indian forces were winning, a ceasefire was announced and PoK came into existence. “Had the ceasefire been delayed by three days, PoK would have been part of India. Second blunder was to take our issue to the UN (United Nations),” Shah said in Parliament.
Abdullah, however, told News18 that Amit Shah’s statements are not accurate. “You can’t tarnish the image of Jawaharlal Nehru. Shah must know the facts. Why were the troops suddenly shifted to Poonch and Rajouri? Because they were in danger and they would have been part of PoK today if the troops hadn’t shifted to save that region which is today part of India,” Abdullah said.
“They blame Nehru for ceasefire, while there is a letter written by Sardar Patel from Dehradun in 1948 saying we are sorry ‘we don’t have the material to continue with this war and we don’t know how long this tragedy will last…Patel wrote that must find a solution to this immediately,” Abdullah told News18.
“(So) it was not Nehru’s decision; it was the condition of the country at that time so that decision was taken by the Cabinet. Patel was a part of that decision, his letter is there. Why don’t they see that?” Abdullah said.
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