PrintFriendlyTalking about the territory of Jammu and Kashmir that was captured by Pakistan under the pretext of a tribal attack on the state from across the border in 1947, Syama Prasad Mookerjee termed it as “national humiliation”.
Siddhartha Rai
- BJP ideologue and rightwing mascot Syama Prasad Mookerjee – projected by the party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as the “unifying hero” of Jammu and Kashmir who got “martyred” for opposing Article 370 – was in favour of a military solution to the Kashmir problem. He had claimed that then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to the idea.The information came to light as several records related to the late founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) – precursor to today’s Bharatiya Janata Party and a Nehru-baiter – emerged during the two-week-long exhibition on Mookerjee, going on at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML).
BLAST FROM THE PAST
The statements of Mookerjee that have been referred to here are part of the 1952 Lok Sabha Debates, volume -II, part-II). The exhibition was inaugurated by BJP chief Amit Shah and has been billed as a subtle undermining of Congress-Left dominance over the institution.
The BJP went on to attack Congress veteran Jaipal Reddy for his remarks made in connection with Shah’s opening speech at the inauguration of the Mookerjee exhibition at NMML. While Shah had castigated Nehru for taking the Kashmir tangle to the UN, calling it a “historic blunder”, Reddy had advised Shah to read history pointing that Mookerjee too was part of the Nehru cabinet when the decision was taken.
Though, Mookerjee accepted that he was part of the cabinet “when the decision was taken” in the Parliamentary speech of August 7, 1952, he also opened a veiled attack on Nehru as he referred to the “extraordinary circumstances” under which that decision was taken – circumstances that “I have no right and do not wish to disclose”- he had said.
“Instead of advising the party president to read history, Reddy should brush up his own knowledge of history. He, like a true Congressman, continues to misled people when he says that Mookerjee resigned as Sheikh Abdullah was not being effectively checkmated which is squarely false.
MOOKERJEE’S VIEWS
He should straighten the confusions in his reading of India’s post-independence history. He should dwell on how to explain the Nehru-beholden faction ridden Congress post Sardar Patel when it had become a one-man driven sycophantic conglomerate,” said Anirban Ganguly, director of the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation (SPMRF) and a member of BJP’s policy research department.
Mookerjee was indeed critical of the United Nations (UN) in his speech of August, 7, 1952, that he made in the lower House of the Parliament. “In any case, it does not seem as though we are going to get much or anything at all out of the UNO,” he had said with regard to the Kashmir matter having been taken by Nehru to the international body.
Talking about the territory of Jammu and Kashmir that was captured by Pakistan under the pretext of a tribal attack on the state from across the border in 1947, Mookerjee termed it as “national humiliation”.
“We say that Kashmir is a part of India. It is so. So, a part of India is today in the occupation of the enemy and we are helpless. We are peace-lovers no doubt. But, peace lovers to what extent? Will we even allow a portion of our territory to be occupied by the enemy?,” Mookerjee had said.