NEW DELHI: In what marks a final break between Congress and the family of the former Kashmir royalty affiliated to the party, Congress Thursday took strong exception to former MP and minister Karan Singh defending his late father king Hari Singh while skirting around BJP attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru over Kashmir. The party even went on to underline that there has been no glowing assessment of Hari Singh and his rule in history.
The strong Congress reaction came in the wake of BJP recently fielding Union minister Kiren Rijiju to criticise Nehru over integration of princely states, and the accession of Jammu and Kashmir, to India, even calling the first Prime Minister a hurdle in the process. Hari Singh’s son Karan Singh is an old Congress hand going back to the time of Nehru and Indira Gandhi, who enjoyed ministerial berths and organisational posts in the party. His sons however have joined the BJP in J&K.
With Karan Singh Thursday writing a column in the media lauding his late father, AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh said, “There is not a single scholarly and serious work on J&K that portrays Maharaja Hari Singh in good light. Even the authoritative work by V P Menon doesn’t make Hari Singh a wronged man. It is hence natural that his son Karan Singh defends him today. What I find surprising though is that Karan Singh has sidestepped Rijiju’s hit job on Nehru. This is the same Nehru without whose support Karan Singh wouldn’t have achieved much, as he acknowledges in his 2006 book with 216 letters exchanged between them during 1948-64.”
Ramesh added, “This is the same Nehru to whom he dedicated his book on Aurobindo in May 1962, and for which Nehru wrote a wonderful foreword.”
Jammu and Kashmir has gained new topicality and importance in the national debate in view of the nullification of Article 370 and also the indications from the Union government that the election to J&K assembly may happen soon.
