If anyone has the capacity to make PoJK part of India, it is Modi: Union minister

“I cannot say when it (PoJK) will become a part of India. But if anyone has the capacity to do it, it is Modi… Modi hai to Mumkin hai (it is possible, if it there is Modi),” he said.

Singh, who is a lawmaker from Jammu and Kashmir and minister in the Prime Minister’s Office was speaking at an event organised by the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Forum and Mirpur Balidan Samiti to mark the 25th anniversary of the resolution passed by Parliament on 22 February 1994 that affirms that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India.

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The resolution passed by both houses said, “The state of Jammu 8 Kashmir has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means.” It also demanded, “Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir which, they have occupied through aggression.”

Singh blamed India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru for the letting Pakistan occupy a portion of J&K and said, while Partition of India has been the greatest blunder, creation of PoJK was an outcome of that blunder.

“PoJK is not the result of partition but the fall out of it…” Singh said.

Blaming Nehru and Jinnah for the country’s Partition in 1947 after India gained Independence from the British rule, he said, “The greatest blunder of recent history has been the Partition of India. There was no survey done to find out whether people wanted it… (Mahatma) Gandhi was opposed to it, unaligned leaders, stakeholders, the common man and even the Muslim community did not want it…but for the ambition of two people Nehru and (MA) Jinnah, who had PM aspirations…”

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The minister went on to say, the ambition and vested interest of two individuals, Nehru and Jinnah, “…allowed itself for complete exploitation in the hands of the British Empire.”

“(Cyril) Radcliffe drew the line (international border between India and Pakistan) without stepping out of Delhi…he had certain limitations, he also knew this would lead to a lot of disturbance…Maharaja Hari Singh had signed the same instrument of accession that was signed by any other Maharaja. How were the parameters then changed as per convenience, Singh said.

Referring to the insertion of the now scrapped Article 370 that gave special powers to Jammu and Kashmir as part of the “Nehruvian Blunders”, he said, “One after the other, he made blunders. He was a bhudhijeevi (intellectual), historian but in the early years, he made some mistakes pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir, China and the non-aligned movement. We were almost at the point of retrieving the territory of Mirpur (now in PoJK), he announced a unilateral ceasefire and did not even consult the cabinet; he wanted to be an apostle of peace.”

Singh said had the army been allowed to continue its operations instead of allowing the ceasefire in 1949, the territory would have been reclaimed. “ The Army wanted just two days..but the unilateral ceasefire stopped it,” he said. He also criticised Nehru for taking the Kashmir issue to the United Nations.

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“When Syama Prasad Mookerjee (Jan Sangh leader) told Nehru to reconsider the provisions of Article 370, he said yeh ghiste, ghiste, ghis jaye gi (it will be diluted in time…) But history is made of imponderables, we visualise tomorrow through the spectacle of today…What was visualised by Nehru actually happened in the reverse fashion. A temporary provision was allowed to continue by his party (Congress) for appeasement politics,” he said.

Singh described 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at the centre, as a turning point. “If Modi hadn’t come, the narrative would have continued… Article 370 was misused by those who were its protectors. PM Modi has the courage and the conviction and the capacity to break the taboos of the past…And

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J&K is keen to be part of India’s growth story,” he said.

Solicitor general, Tushar Mehta who was the Centre’s counsel in defending the abrogation of Article 370 and involved in the process of abrogation of the article on August 5, 2019 also praised PM Modi and union home minister Amit Shah for declaiming on the floor of Parliament that PoJK is part of India.

“People used to say abrogation of article 370 is a dream, it was almost untouchable by any political party…it was done and dusted in a day,” he said.

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Mehta said there is a big movement in PoJK, where people have realised what they have lost by not being a part of India. “On this side of J&K, there is All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) opening, big hospitals and hotels are opening, and 16 million people visited J&K and on the other side there is shortage for food…There are interviews from people on that side that we want to be a part of India,” he said.

Pointing out that the youth in PoJK have to migrate for jobs and about 35% of the youth is unemployed he said, “The youth are going to the Gulf countries for jobs. And PoK is closer to Gulf countries than they are to Pakistan. And India is very close to the Gulf countries… you can join the dots. Nothing that this government does is without a cause, purpose, reason and without some larger national interest.”

He went on to say, “The dream that Parliament saw on 22 February 1994 and the dream that right thinking people are looking at…if anyone has the courage and political will to make it a reality, I have no hesitation to say, it is only the PM and HM… and if it does not happen now, it may not happen.”