Nehru 'Imposed' Art 370 Because Of Friendship With Abdullah: Vasudhara Raje

BJP leader Vasundhara Raje on Friday targeted the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru over Article 370, saying he did "injustice" to Jammu and Kashmir for the sake of his friendship with Sheikh Abdullah.

She was addressing a gathering of prominent local residents at the state BJP headquarters here as part of the party’s campaign to create awareness about the decision to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution.

The provisions of the article, which gave a special status of J&K, were withdrawn last month.

“When we were in Kashmir during the Ekta Yatra in 1981, we heard gunshots entire night and lived under the protection of the Army. This was the state of Kashmir which we used to call an integral part of India,” Raje, former Rajasthan chief minister, said.

Nehru accorded a special status to J&K, but prime minister Narendra Modi has turned this “injustice” into “justice”, she added.

“The special status was accorded because of friendship between Nehru and (National Conference founder) Sheikh Abdullah. Section 370 was imposed and even Parliament was made helpless,” she said.

“563 princely states were to be merged with India. But Nehru gave the responsibility of merging 562 of them to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who carried out his responsibility very efficiently,” Raje said.

“But Nehru kept J&K with himself and did injustice.  Pak Occupied Kashmir would also have become part of India, had Nehru not announced ceasefire (during the 1948 war),” the BJP vice president claimed.

“We all thank prime minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah for this decision, realizing the dream of Akhand Bharat (Undivided India),” Raje said.