Union minister Jitendra Singh also launched a veiled attack on the Congress (File Photo)
Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday blamed former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, saying if he had not interfered in the functioning of Sardar Patel (then home minister), the situation would have been different in the state.
Intervening during a debate in the Lok Sabha on a presidential proclamation imposing President's Rule in Jammu and Kashmir, Jitendra Singh launched a veiled attack on Congress calling it a "rasoighar ki party (party of kitchen)".
Mr Singh said the reason to implement President's rule in the state was that no party came forward to stake its claim to form government there.
Explaining the political situation in the state that led to the imposition of President's Rule, he said that the BJP formed a coalition with People's Democratic Party (PDP) amid a fractured mandate.
"It was the people's mandate. Had we not formed the government, the people would have blamed us that we fled and did not form the government," he said.
While Mr Singh was speaking, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP should learn from history on what Jawaharlal Nehru did.
Mr Singh aggressively countered the suggestion, saying, "The current situation in Kashmir is an outcome of a series of blunders of successive Congress governments in the state starting with the Nehruvian blunder."
"If Nehru had not intervened in the functioning of Patel, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir would have been different today," Mr Singh added.
Referring to the centre's view towards Jammu and Kashmir and attacking the Congress, Mr Singh said: "We are ready for elections. We are not a party of kitchen where things are decided by mother and son while eating their food. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir were opposed by those who ruined the state in over 50 years," he said.
He said BJP's history was linked with the state, and that its leader Shayama Prasad Mukherjee's sacrifice was the biggest example of that.