Congress's Jairam Ramesh Targets Colleague Karan Singh Over Nehru Article

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday criticised party colleague Karan Singh for "sidestepping" Union minister Kiren Rijuju's "hit job" on Jawaharlal Nehru's role in Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India.

The Congress general secretary's remarks come over an article by Karan Singh on Jammu and Kashmir's accession to India in an English daily in which Mr Ramesh said he had defended his father and erstwhile ruler Hari Singh.

Reacting to the piece, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, "There is not a single scholarly and serious work on J&K that portrays Maharaja Hari Singh in good light."

"Even this authoritative work by VP Menon doesn't make Hari Singh a wronged man. It is hence natural that his son Dr. Karan Singh defends him in the HT today," Mr Ramesh said, sharing the screenshot of the cover of a book by VP Menon.

"What I find surprising though is that Dr. Karan Singh has sidestepped Rijuju's hit job on Nehru. This the same Nehru without whose support Dr. Karan Singh wouldn't have achieved much, as he acknowledges in his 2006 book with 216 letters exchanged between them during 1948-64," he said.

"This is the same Nehru to whom Karan Singh dedicated his book on Aurobindo in May 1962, and for which the country's first PM wrote a wonderful foreword," he added.

Jammu and Kahmir's accession came into focus with Rijiju writing an article for a portal citing "five Nehruvian blunders", including floating the idea of a plebiscite and terming Jammu and Kashmir's accession provisional.

The minister had said it was important to realise past mistakes to build a new future and added he has not tweaked history but stated facts to set the record straight.

The Congress had demanded an apology from Mr Rijiju over his criticism of Nehru's handling of the Kashmir issue and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rein in ministers from making "irresponsible statements".
 

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