RSS accuses Congress of ‘series of betrayals’ on Kashmir after Independence, lauds Centre’s abrogation of Article 370

Nagpur: Senior RSS leader Arun Kumar on Wednesday said the top Congress leadership committed a series “betrayals” on the Kashmir issue in the early years of Independence. By abrogating article 370, the Narendra Modi government has integrated the state with the rest of India, he said, delivering a lecture on `Situation of Kashmir after Article 370’. [caption id=“attachment_4379629” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. PTI[/caption] “The first betrayal with Jammu and Kashmir was when the Maharaja of the state was continuously asking for a merger and we (the then-Indian government) were not carrying out merger,” he alleged. When Maharaja Hari Singh said that Pakistan was planning to attack and he was running out of weapons, then-home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had called a meeting of the cabinet committee on defence on 2 October, 1947, and a proposal was passed to immediately send weapons to the maharaja, the RSS leader said. However, there was delay in dispatch of weapons as the then-army chief was British, he said. After the accession of Jammu and Kashmir, the Maharaja, who had agreed to merge with India was “sent away from the state”, the RSS leader alleged. “The greatest betrayal in Jammu and Kashmir happened with Maharaja Hari Singh when he was exiled from Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. He also accused former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of siding with Sheikh Abdullah, leader of the National Conference. Article 370 of the Constitution which gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir only benefitted fifty influential families in the state, he said.