Sonia's opposition to police action in Kashmir similar to Nehru's during Hyderabad merger: Ram Madhav

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday hit out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for following in the footsteps of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, by opposing police action in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 in the region.

Nehru, said the BJP leader, had opposed police action during the merger of the princely state of Hyderabad into Indian Union in 1948 under the leadership of then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

"Like their leader Sonia today in the case of Kashmir, Nehru too was opposed to police action taken by Patel in Hyderabad at that time," Madhav wrote on Facebook.

The Congress has strongly opposed the government's move on abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 and the bill to bifurcate the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories in both houses of Parliament. However, a number of Congress leaders across the country went against the party's stand in Parliament.

This statement from Madhav came while criticising the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy for stating that only Jawaharlal Nehru and the Sardar Vallabhai Patel had played a key role in the merger of Hyderabad.

Reddy also alleged that the BJP was trying to distort the history on the merger of Hyderabad with India and added it was the Congress and Communist parties that had fought the Nizam when the Centre was planning to annex Hyderabad State with Pakistan.

He also trained his guns against Madhav stating that the BJP leader despite being a native of Andhra Pradesh was not aware of Telangana's history.

Reacting to criticism, Madhav on his Facebook post stated that Reddy's "such silly regionalist" comments had finished off Congress party in Andhra Pradesh completely and the same thing was going to happen soon in Telangana too.

"I don't know how much this man knew about Telangana liberation and the roles played by the then Congress leaders like Prime Minister Nehru. I hope Telangana Congress President won't say Patel and K M Munshi were Gujaratis and hence they didn't know about Hyderabad," Madhav wrote.

On a lighter note, Madhav added that the Congress leaders firmly believed that Europeans knew India better than Indians.

Madhav also posted excerpts from Munshi's book "Pilgrimage to Freedom" which claimed Nehru was extremely upset with the developments on Hyderabad and had called a special meeting of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, excluding the three Chiefs of Staff a day before the army was scheduled to march into Hyderabad.

The excerpts claimed even a little while before zero hours for the police action attempts were made by the British army chief to defer action, but Patel stuck to the time-table and forces marched into Hyderabad.

"Swift action followed. No sooner had the military appeared on the scene than the straw-stuffed power of the Nizam collapsed," Munshi wrote, according to Madhav.

Munshi was an official witness to the happenings at Hyderabad during those fateful months in 1948.

Congress leaders had on Tuesday celebrated Hyderabad Liberation Day, the anniversary of the merger of the erstwhile princely State of Hyderabad with the Indian Union after Police Action in 1948.

(ANI)

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