J&K bills passed by LS; Amit Shah hits out at Opposition over Nehru's 'historical mistakes'

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha saw the passage of two bills on Jammu and Kashmir — the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2023 — with the Opposition staging a walkout over Home Minister Amit Shah saying that Jawaharlal Nehru made two historical mistakes.

During his speech, Shah said that the abrogation undid the wrongs brought about by these mistakes. “The first mistake was to declare a ceasefire when our army was winning as soon as they reached Punjab, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was born; if the ceasefire had been delayed by three days, PoK would have been a part of India today. The second big mistake was when they took the issue to the United Nations,” Shah said.

The Opposition staged a walkout as Shah was speaking. In response to Shah’s comments, Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that it is shocking that the ministers of the ruling dispensation still continue to criticise Nehru.

“We are tired of hearing ... I request that there be a day in which we discuss Jammu and Kashmir and Nehru and his mistakes. Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to say ‘Kashmiriyat, Jamhuriyat, Insaniyat’; have you all even followed that (sic),” Chowdhury asked.

Shah said that Article 370 was responsible for civilian deaths. “Article 370 was responsible for the death of 45,000 people in Jammu and Kashmir, which was abrogated by PM Modi. With the removal of Article 370, separatism has ended and terrorism has reduced significantly,” he said.

“I believe the Modi government will return to power in 2024 and I hope there will be no terror incident in Jammu and Kashmir in 2026,” he added.

Shah further said that the 37 seats from Jammu in the assembly have been increased to 43, and Kashmir’s 46 seats will now be 47. He said that 24 seats have been reserved for PoK. “Earlier there were 107 seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, now there are 114 seats; earlier there were 2 nominated members in the Assembly, now there will be 5,” Shah said.

Chowdhury, citing data, said that the number of terrorist attacks in 2019-2022 was higher than the number between 2014-2019. “You are clever at converting black to white, but this is the reality. You have won one election, doesn’t mean you have won the world (sic),” Chowdhury said.