Amit Shah blames Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Historic Blunder’ for Kashmir issue. Then who has stopped BJP, why can’t the saffron party set it right or at least starts working towards setting it right? Like many, I also voted for this party assuming that Mr. Modi will perform. However, it’s getting a bit tedious listening to the rhetoric speeches and blame game. BJP needs to be serious and understand the fact that Nehru is no more, and after independence even RSS, Jansangh to BJP, never raised this issue. Now, they are passing the buck. I feel sorry for them; they have an absolute majority government after 30 years. They should stop legacy arguments. Whole nation voted for BJP after understanding complete political history during general election rhetoric in 2013-2014. They should take some solid steps to resolve this issue now. Otherwise, even my great grandchildren will be listening to their politicians blaming BJP and Amit Shah for present inaction. Please do not equate them to Nehru.
Referring to the declaration of truce when Pakistan-backed tribal raiders in 1948 were being repulsed in Kashmir, he said if such a decision was not made, the Jammu and Kashmir problem would not have existed today. He claimed that this decision was taken to improve “one’s (Nehru’s) personal image,” and lamented that because of this, a part of Kashmir is now with Pakistan. He also raised questions over the circumstances that led to Dr. Shyama Prasad Mookerjee’s death but he forgot that Mookerjee was INC member then.
Mookerjee was a politician, who served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet. After falling out with Nehru, Mookerjee quit the Indian National Congress and founded the right wing nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which later evolved into BJP. Mookerjee was given platform in politics by Congress and Nehru gave him position in the party but his ambitions led him to turn rebel.
Mookerjee joined the Hindu Mahasabha in 1939, becoming its president in 1944. He became the leader of the opposition when the Krishak Praja Party – Muslim League coalition was in power from 1937–41 and joined the Progressive Coalition Ministry headed by Fazlul Haq as a Finance Minister. On 11th February 1941, Mookerjee told a Hindu rally that if Muslims wanted to live in Pakistan they should pack bags and baggage and leave India wherever they like. He also supported the partition of Bengal in 1946 to prevent the inclusion of its Hindu-majority areas in a Muslim-dominated East Pakistan.
His views were strongly affected by the Noakhali genocide in East Bengal, where mobs belonging to the Muslim league massacred Hindus in large numbers. Shyama Prasad’s hate speeches invited many riots between Hindus and Muslims.
Mookerjee resigned from the Cabinet on 6th April 1950 over a disagreement about the 1950 Delhi Pact with Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. He was firmly against Nehru’s invitation to the Pakistani PM, and their joint pact to establish minority commissions and guarantee minority rights in both countries. He wanted to hold Pakistan directly responsible for the terrible influx of millions of Hindu refugees from East Pakistan, who had left the state fearing religious suppression and violence aided by the state. Mookerjee translated and propagated Nehru’s actions as appeasement, and was hailed as a hero by the people of India.
After consultation with M. S. Golwalkar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) on 21st October 1951 in Delhi and he became its first President. In the 1952 elections, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh won three seats in the Parliament of India including Mookerjee’s own seat. He had formed the National Democratic Party within the Parliament, which consisted of 32 members of parliament and 10 members from the Rajya Sabha, which, however, was not recognised by the speaker as an opposition party. The BJS was ideologically close to the RSS and widely considered the political arm of Hindu Nationalism. It favoured a uniform civil code governing personal law matters for both Hindus and Muslims, and wanted to ban cow slaughter and end constitutional autonomy given to the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir. The BJS founded the Hindutva agenda, which became the wider political expression of India’s Hindu majority. His legacy still remains influential among the conservative members within the BJP and that is what we can smell from Amit Shah’s speeches.
Mookerjee was arrested after entering Kashmir in 11th May, 1953. Thereafter, he was jailed in a shattered broken house. He had suffered from dry pleurisy and coronary troubles, and was taken to hospital. He was administered penicillin, despite having informed the doctor-in-charge of his allergy to penicillin, and he died on 23rd June, 1953. His death in custody raised wide suspicion across the country and demands for an independent enquiry were raised, including earnest requests from his mother, Jogamaya Devi, to Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru declared that he had inquired from a number of persons who were privy to the facts and, according to him; there was no mystery behind Mookerjee’s death. Atal Bihari Vajpayee claimed in 2004 that the arrest of Mookerjee in Jammu and Kashmir was a ‘Nehru’s conspiracy”. The BJP president claimed that Mr Mookerjee was kept in an inadequately equipped safe house near Srinagar and then not provided medical facilities as he was admitted to a gynaecological ward even though he had a heart ailment.
Even though more than 69 years have passed since independence, but BJP still lingers on the past but never dared to correct the present.
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