Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 23: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh today said that the Congress leaders during their 60 years’ rule consciously disowned Maharaja Hari Singh and are now, unabashedly appealing to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to honour him.
“The BJP, right from the days of Praja Parishad and Bharatiya Jan Sangh, consistently stood by Maharaja Hari Singh and would in future also work to fulfill the ultimate goal of restoring Jammu & Kashmir to its original form, as was handed over by the Maharaja at the time of accession and which included Pak occupied Jammu & Kashmir(PoJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan,” he said.
Speaking at a seminar held to observe the 125th birth anniversary of Maharaja Hari Singh here today, Dr Singh said, history was unkind to Maharaja Hari Singh, but historians will also take care to record that Maharaja Hari Singh was forced to leave his homeland and live in exile because of the pressure from the Jawaharlal Nehru led Congress Government at the Centre. The historians, he said, will also not forget to record that Maharaja Hari Singh, during his difficult days, was ditched even by his closest near and dear ones.
Recalling the tragic sequence of events, Dr Jitendra said, Maharaja Hari Singh had boarded the train to Mumbai on the June 10, 1949, in the hope that he will be able to return one day. But that did not happen and he died as a lonely person in grief at Mumbai on April 26 1961. When the news of his death reached Jammu, the entire population went into a state of shock, but did not know where to go to condole his death, and finally rallied around Pandit Prem Nath Dogra to share their extreme grief.
Lauding Maharaja Hari Singh for his extraordinary vision and secular credentials, Dr Singh said, the biggest evidence is that in 1947, when there were communal riots all over the country, Jammu & Kashmir was the only State where there was not a single incident of violence, which promoted Mahatma Gandhi to say that he saw a ray of hope in Jammu & Kashmir. In the Jammu & Kashmir of 1947, there was far greater communal harmony than in the later decades and the worst kind of strife became visible in the last three decades, for which the blame cannot be put on Maharaja Hari Singh but on his successors, who took over the reins of the State after him.
Emphasising that Maharaja Hari Singh had signed the same “Instrument of Accession” as done by the other heads of Princely States, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it will be for the Congress party to explain why the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru chose the isolated case of Jammu & Kashmir, and not any other princely State, to be taken to the UNO and, it is for the Congress party to explain why its veterans in Jammu & Kashmir, over half-a-century, maintained studied silence simply because they did not wish to risk losing the perks and privileges, which came to them with power.
Giving credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having redeemed the sacrifice of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee by revoking Article 370, Dr Jitendra singh said, the redemption to Maharaja Hari Singh will also be done by the Modi government by retrieving back the part of Jammu & Kashmir, which remains under illegal occupation of Pakistan.
For abrogation of Article 370 and restoring Jammu & Kashmir to its place of pride, Dr Jitendra Singh said, three generations of nationalists had struggled all their lives and we owe it to them to live upto this avowed objective.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
