New Delhi: Union minister Amit Shah on Wednesday blamed former prime minister (late) Jawaharlal Nehru for the security challenges Jammu and Kashmir has been facing for several decades, saying the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir wouldn’t have come into existence had the former not made ‘two blunders’. He was speaking in the Lok Sabha on the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

“I stand in the House and say responsibly that Kashmir suffered for several years because of the two blunders during the tenure of PM Jawaharlal Nehru. The biggest mistake was that when our forces were winning, a cease fire was announced and PoK came into existence. Had the ceasefire been delayed by three days, PoK would have been a part of India,” Shah said, amid loud protest from the opposition members of parliament.

He said the second blunder was involving the United Nations in the Kashmir issue.

“Second was the blunder to take our issue to the UN (United Nations),” he added.

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He also blamed the Congress for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. He claimed the incident could have been averted had there not been vote bank politics.

The Lok Sabha today passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to nominate two members from the Kashmiri migrant community and one representing the displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to the legislative assembly. The second bill also passed.

Shah said the two bills were aimed at giving justice to those who had been deprived of rights over the past 70 years.

BJP leader Giriraj Singh later seconded Amit Shah.

“Amit Shah has rightly said that we lost PoK because of Jawaharlal Nehru. He called (the forces) back and took the Kashmir issue to the UN,” he said.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of India. He was the closest associate of Mahatma Gandhi and a freedom struggle leader.

He was the father of former PM Indira Gandhi, the late grandmother of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

With inputs from PTI, ANI