New Delhi: Union minister Jitendra Singh on Friday blamed former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, saying if he had not interfered in the functioning of Sardar Patel (then Home Minister), the situation would have been different in the state.
Intervening during a debate in the Lok Sabha on a presidential proclamation imposing President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, Singh launched a veiled attack on Congress calling it a “rasoighar ki party (party of kitchen)”.
“The current situation in Kashmir is an outcome of a series of blunders of successive Congress governments in the state starting with the Nehruvian blunder. If Nehru had not intervened in the functioning of Patel, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir would have been different today,” he said.
“We are ready for elections. We are not a party of kitchen where things are decided by mother and son while eating their food. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir were opposed by those who ruined the state in over 50 years,” he added.
Singh said the reason to implement President’s rule in the state was that no party came forward to stake its claim to form government there.
Explaining the political situation in the state that led to the imposition of President’s Rule, he said that the BJP formed a coalition with People’s Democratic Party (PDP) amid a fractured mandate.
Singh made the remarks while Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narendra Singh Tomar introduced the Jallianwala Bagh National (Amendment) Bill, 2018, and Home Minister Rajnath Singh moved the statutory resolution for discussion on proclamation issued by the President on December 19 under article 356 of the Constitution in relation to Jammu and Kashmir.
The House passed the resolution approving proclamation of Presidents Rule even as the opposition parties objected and termed it “unconstitutional”.
After the passage of the resolution, Speaker Mahajan allowed a brief discussion, saying although it has been passed and already been adopted, she was allowing a discussion on it as a “special case”.
Initiating the debate, Shashi Tharoor of Congress said the state was put under Governor’s Rule without any floor test.
“It was done despite the fact that Congress, the PDP and the National Conference had come together to form the government. Why did the Governor not conduct a floor test in the Assembly?” he said.
He also sought to know from the government whether the Governor gave reasons in writing as required by the Supreme Court in the S.R. Bombai case and asked the government to share the reasons with Parliament.
