New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge countered Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday over his claim that Jawaharlal Nehru was not in favour of Kashmir’s accession to India and challenged him to read the correspondence between Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on the issue, and review the Constituent Assembly discussions of the time.
In an X post in Hindi, Kharge also alleged that it was the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and later, the Jan Sangh, who made statements that Kashmir should be declared an independent country.
Modi launched a sharp attack on Nehru, the country’s first Prime Minister, on Friday, claiming that he prevented Patel from fully integrating Kashmir into the Indian Union.
Kharge claimed that Patel’s private secretary, V Shankar, who himself had supported the former during the negotiations for J&K’s accession, compiled a book of correspondence between Patel and other leaders, titled “Selected Correspondence of Sardar Patel”. “…If Pandit Nehru had not been involved in the process of J&K’s accession to India, would there have been so much correspondence between Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru during that time?” he asked.
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