NEW DELHI: Dubbing law minister Kiren Rijiju as “distorian” for his public interventions on history of Kashmir’s accession with India, Congress on Sunday claimed that BJP’s remarks on Jawaharlal Nehru and its eulogising of late Kashmir king Hari Singh have baffled even its supporters.
Congress spokesman Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “I spoke to a BJP ideologue this morning about Kiren Rijiju, the latest entrant to the club of Distorians. He (the BJP idealogue) sent me the following message: The strange thing is, Nehru being vilified is one thing, Hari Singh being exalted as some sort of upright and benevolent hero takes the cake.” Ramesh, however, did not name the BJP ideologue he claimed to have quoted.
Rijiju recently said that Nehru's “blunders” like enacting Article 370 and approaching the United Nations for dispute with Pakistan hurt India’s interest and was the reason behind militancy and loss of lives in Jammu & Kashmir.
Congress has demanded that Rijiju apologise for criticising Nehru, and has asked PM Narendra Modi to ask his ministers to refrain from making “irresponsible statements”.
Congress leader Anand Sharma said, “I can only pity the mental bankruptcy of minister Rijiju. He has no understanding of history, there is no proof, no evidence. I would say the PM should rein in ministers from making such untrue, false and irresponsible statements as have been made in this regard. The account of that period in 1947 has been carefully documented by more than one person who were directly associated with the merger of princely states.”
