A recent opinion piece on Jawaharlal Nehru’s role in Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to India, written by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, has sparked a face-off between two veteran Congress leaders. On one side is former Union minister Karan Singh, who wrote an opinion piece retorting to Rijiju’s allegations against his father, late Maharaja Hari Singh’s role during the signing of the Instrument of Accession. And on the other is Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh, who believes that Karan Singh didn’t stand up for Nehru. Here's what happened. First, what did Rijiju say on Nehru's role in the Kashmir issue? In an opinion published by News18, Rijiju accused the country’s first Prime Minister of committing “five Nehruvian blunders” to fulfil his own 'personal agenda' that, he says, ultimately created problems on the matter of J&K’s accession. In his column, Rijiju also claimed that Hari Singh, the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of J&K, was ready to join India much before Independence. Wait, here's a quick history lesson: Before Independence, Kashmir was an independent princely state ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh. On October 26, 1947, the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession, which formally made J&K a part of India. But the period that led to this historic moment was tumultuous to say the least. All princely states, including J&K, were given the choice to cede to either India or Pakistan. Initially, Maharaja Hari Singh had decided to remain independent and sign standstill instruments with both India and Pakistan. But after tribesmen and army men from Pakistan invaded, he sought India’s help, which in return sought the accession of the state to the Dominion of India. Okay, so how has Karan Singh responded to Rijiju’s article? Singh wrote an article in The Hindustan Times, responding to Rijiju's claims. He said he had no knowledge on whether his father was ready to accede to India well before Independence as suggested by Rijiju, adding that it is possible that the then deputy PM of Jammu and Kashmir, Ram Lal Batra, "may have spoken informally to someone in Delhi". He also quoted from a letter his father wrote to Lord Mountbatten on Accession Day. “This letter gives no indication that he had decided to accede well before Partition. Even in a 1952 speech quoted by Rijiju, Nehru said, ‘even if the Maharaja and his government then wanted to accede to India.’, which implies that he had not, in fact, done so,” Singh wrote. What did Jairam Ramesh say? In his article, Karan Singh wrote that Rijiju’s allegations against Nehru were a “separate matter”. It was this that triggered a backlash from the Congress. Accusing Singh of “sidestepping” Rijiju’s “hit job” on Nehru, Ramesh claimed there was not a “single scholarly and serious work on J&K that portrays Maharaja Hari Singh in good light”. But it didn't end there Karan Singh, in a statement on Friday, said it was “preposterous” for Ramesh to claim that his article was against Nehru. “Pandit ji was my mentor ever since I entered public life at the age of 18 and I will always hold him in the highest regard,” he said. Accusing Ramesh of making “unacceptable” comments based on an “evidently selective” reading of history. "I notice that the irrepressible Jairam Ramesh has thought it fit to make a statement on my article in The Hindustan Times yesterday (November 3). He has made two points, both of which are unacceptable… I would have hoped that my views (were) taken in the spirit in which I wrote them, rather than become a subject of snide remarks,” Singh said in his statement. He stressed that he was one of the last living eyewitnesses to the events preceding and following the signing of the Instrument of Accession with India by his father Maharaja Hari Singh. Over the years, Singh has distanced himself from the Congress. In fact, just a month ago, he said that his relationship with the Congress was "almost zero" now. "I had joined the Congress in 1967. But in the last 8-10 years, I have no more been in parliament,” he said in an interview with ANI in September. "Yes, I'm in Congress but there's no contact, nobody asks me anything. I do my own work. My relations with the party are almost zero now.”
