Defence Minister Rajnath Singh claimed Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to build the Babri Masjid using public funds, but Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel prevented it. He also lauded Patel's contributions and criticized Nehru's approach to national issues.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a sharp attack on country's first premier Jawaharlal Nehru, claiming he prevented Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel from fully integrating Kashmir into the Indian Union.
'It is high time that the 'war on terror' is removed from our diplomatic toolbox.' 'Certainly, our parliamentarians have no role in it,' asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'We in Kashmir will ensure that this kind of incident does not happen again.'
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that India and Pakistan came closer to resolving the Kashmir issue during the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. He added that he does not expect a return to that situation in his lifetime. Abdullah lauded Singh's efforts on Kashmir, including the setting up of working groups on the issue, and said he practically initiated measures for the return of displaced Kashmiri Pandits. The chief minister also praised Singh's contribution to India's economic development.
After the 1962 War with China, there was a demand to forge greater defence cooperation between India and the West. One such voice was that of Sudhir Ghosh, a distinguished MP, to tie up strategic cooperation with the USA immediately after the Chinese attack on India, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel resolved issues of merger of other princely states, but 'one person' could not resolve the Kashmir issue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, in a veiled attack on India's first PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
Mufti said that whatever decision the PM takes, the country will support him.
'We called him Sher-e-Kashmir but we realised he was no lion but a pussycat who surrendered.'
If the air pollution is not brought under control, tourism to Kashmir will be affected, warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd), who has been visiting the valley for 50 years.
"Pakistan has always been fishing in the troubled waters of Jehlum," he added.
Giving economic aid to Kashmir is like giving TB medicine to a patient suffering from cancer and expecting it to work, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
"This is all about distraction, basic issue is of caste census and participation, in whose hands is the money of the country going. They (BJP) don't want to discuss this issue, they are afraid of it and run away from it," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.
'Indira Gandhi and P N Haksar did not want Pakistan to leave as an embittered foe hell-bent on taking revenge for being humiliated so comprehensively.'
The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit community changed the very cultural ethos of Kashmir and there has been little turnback despite three decades having gone by since it got triggered by growing fundamentalism fuelled from across the border, Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said on Monday.
Modi emphasised on the need for taking Kashmir ahead with peace and unity while ensuring that it remains 'paradise' in the real sense.
'It would be very easy for me to say, it's only the Pakistanis that want the Kashmir issue to remain alive.' 'Trust me, there is a vested interest on the Indian side in keeping the issue of Jammu and Kashmir alive.'
Claiming that Jammu and Kashmir had suffered on various fronts in the wake of partition, Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Thursday said self-rule could, to a large extent, neutralize its negative fallout.
If military power is all it would take to finish the menace of an awful terrorist organisation like Hamas, how come five Israeli wars in Gaza since 2003 have failed to do so? asks Shekhar Gupta.
I think the 'What-if-it-had-been-Patel?' sentiment represents a yearning for more of what we are already seeing around us in India today, observes Aakar Patel.
'We need to have a prosperous J-K, where all communities must prosper including Dogras, Gujjars, Sikhs, Muslims and Pandits.' 'Prosperity is the first signal of peace.'
Learning perhaps from the Kargil debacle, Musharraf tried hard to evolve as a statesman in his dealings with India, recalls Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
She also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre of "murdering the democracy" in the name of polls.
He also accused the Congress of delaying a solution to the Kashmir issue for seven decades.
December 3, 2021 marks 50 years since the beginning of the 1971 War which ended in a decisive military victory for India and the liberation of Bangladesh. Most analysts of the 1971 War agree that the IV Corps dash across the mighty Meghna river led by the brilliant General Sagat Singh was the turning point in the war, recalls military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Press Council of India chairperson justice Markandey Katju on Saturday said that the only solution to the Kashmir problem is the reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong government which will not tolerate bigotry.
The resolution, moved by Bharatiya Janata Party's Nishikant Dubey, as well as an amendment to include people who have migrated from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for rehabilitation, was adopted by a voice vote.
Pakistan must be deleted once and for all from the vocabulary of Kashmir-related negotiations with a finality that is irrevocable, asserts Vivek Gumaste.
'The sooner Pakistan and India face these geopolitical realities, the better it will be for their own security and prosperity,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'We know how to kill a terrorist, but we do not know how to stop an innocent boy getting radicalised.'
People in Jammu and Kashmir may have rejected the boycott call by separatists by turning out in large numbers to vote in the assembly polls but for many of them the sentiment for "freedom" hasn't died. "People of late have realised that development and resolution of Kashmir problem are two separate issues," said Mohammad Siddique, a retired officer.
Wani said he also asked Sri Sri to use his influence in finding a solution to Kashmir problem.
Immediately after Modi delivered his speech, Omar merely tweeted "finally" but, in a subsequent tweet, voiced his disagreement with Modi's view.
He asserted his force was as competent as the CBI to probe the Kathua rape and murder case.
Onkar Singh, a valuable member of the Rediff.com team over the years, breathed his last on January 13. Syed Firdaus Ashraf, who knew him intimately, remembers the ultimate newsman.
'Your confidence is shaken when the government does what it does these days, but then it is the same confidence that gives you the courage to stand up to the government's high-handedness.' 'There will always be people who will not fear jails or the physical and mental torture that visit citizens protesting against the government's draconian policies and laws.' 'There will always be Indians who will not be afraid to face the consequences of fighting for their Constitutional rights.'
A leader of Shiv Sena, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of "compromising" on Hindutva issues and termed BJP's coalition with Peoples Democratic Party in Kashmir as "treason".
'On the Kashmir and Pakistan question, it is startling that Vajpayee and Advani did more than anybody in Indian history.'
Speaking at the Annual Prime Minister's National Cadet Corps Rally 2020, Modi said the problem in Jammu and Kashmir persisted since Independence and some families and political parties kept issues in the region "alive", as a result of which terrorism thrived there.
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