Going to UN for Kashmir was blunder: Shah targets Cong

New Delhi: Holding the Congress party squarely responsible for the present-day Kashmir dispute, Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday slammed the critics for questioning the Narendra Modi government's August 5 move to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Blaming first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the crisis, Shah said going to the UN for the Kashmir issue was a blunder. He said, Article 370 went on for years due to wrong promotion.

"First of all, going to UN for Kashmir was a blunder. And secondly, the selection of the charter was wrong. Instead of choosing charter 35, the government should have opted for charter 51," the BJP president said in a packed auditorium. He was speaking at an event organised by Indraprasth Vishwa Samvad Kendra here.

Elaborating further on his claims, Shah said: "Charter 35 made it a conflict between two nations, while charter 51 would have helped us put the case of a foreign nation occupying our land."

He also alleged that Kashmir's history has been moulded to hide the truth. "It is because the people writing the history were the ones who had created problems in Kashmir", he said.

Shah reminding the audience how Sardar Patel ensured 630 'riyasats' joined India after Independence, except for Jammu and Kashmir that was handled by Nehru.

Training his guns on the first Prime Minister, Shah said: "When Indian armed forces were on the verge of defeating Pakistani army and militants during Independence, Nehru called off the fight. This led to a major chunk of Jammu and Kashmir getting into hands of Pakistan. It is now called PoK."