Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 26: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has accused the Kashmir “apologists” of bringing shame to Indian Army and said that even as Pakistan will continue to keep the Kashmir bogey alive for its political and domestic compulsions, the time has come to unmask the Kashmir apologists within India who are responsible for emboldening Pakistan’s anti-India designs.
Speaking at a seminar to commemorate the “Kargil Vijay Diwas”, incidentally at a time when Pakistan is also looking forward to a new Government after election, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the partition of Indian subcontinent was the biggest mistake in recent history and after independence, this got compounded by another blunder on the part of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who did not allow the then Home Minister and his cabinet colleague, Sardar Patel to handle Jammu & Kashmir with the same freedom and discretion as Patel was handling over 500 other princely States of India. Later,Nehru’s decision to take Kashmir issue to UN left a bad legacy, he added.
As for relations with Pakistan, Dr Jitendra Singh was also critical of the decision to return over 90,000 Prisoners of War (PoWs) from Pakistan following the 1971 war and said, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had invested too much trust in her Pakistan counterpart Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, never realizing that the political authority in Islamabad was never in complete control of the decision making process, particularly vis-a-vis India.
Dr Jitendra Singh also came down heavily on the Kashmir-centric politicians both from the so – called separatists lobby as well as from the so- called mainstream, and said, their politics was based more on convenience and less on conviction. They were guided not by any ideology, he said, but by their respective political agendas. That is why, when in power, they speak a different language, but when out of power, they turn to separatist jargon, which goes to the advantage of Pakistan and its sympathizers in India.
Dr Jitendra Singh concluded by saying that the time has come to change the narrative on Kashmir, to declare that there is no issue as far as Kashmir is concerned except to retrieve the PoJK and, at the same time, reach out to the common youth of Kashmir Valley who are ready to move on and be a part of India’s development journey.
Kargil warriors Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia, Col. K.K. Sharma and Convener of J&K People’s Forum Mahinder Mehta also spoke on the occasion, while Col. (Retd.) Thapar, the father of Kargil martyr Capt. Thapar was felicitated on the occasion.
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