Sardar Patel was better equipped than Jawaharlal Nehru to resolve Kashmir issue: Amit Shah

BIDAR (Karnataka): Attacking the Nehru family on PM Narendra Modi's birthday, BJP president Amit Shah on Wednesday maintained that if Sardar Vallabhai Patel had been entrusted with the task of integrating Jammu & Kashmir with India instead of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, there would have been no Kashmir problem today.

Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony for Martyr's Memorial and a foundation stone for Sardar Vallabhai Patel's statue at Gorta village in Karnataka, about 65km from Bidar, Shah said it was tragic that the nation had to draft a separate law in form of special status and article 370 for Kashmir because of which a major part was lost to Pakistan after partition.

"Had the issue of unification of Kashmir was given to Sardar Patel who had demonstrated guts and determination in unifying 300 princely states and acceding Hyderabad and Junagarh after independence, Kashmir problem would have been settled once and for all," Shah said.

Raking the issue of family politics, the BJP president said Patel's commitment to the country was such that none of his family members entered politics thereafter. "No one knows what they are doing now. Despite being an eminent barrister, he had just Rs 150 in his bank account when he died."

The BJP has termed little Gotra village as "Jallianwalah Bagh of Karnataka". The party has maintained that nearly 200 villagers including women and children were massacred by 'Razakars' of Hyderabad Nizam after districts in this region raised a movement to press for unification of the region with India. The region attained independence 13 months after India got it in 1947.

Attacking Pakistan, Shah said Modi invited heads of SAARC nations and offered an olive branch to Pakistan government to resume talks on contentious issues. "But as always Pakistan betrayed us," he said and added that unlike UPA, NDA has given top priority to national security and is committed to safeguard its borders.

The BJP president said the Modi government has ensured that some section of Kashmir who disliked the Army and wanted it to go back, now love it for the service it has rendered to the local people during the devastating floods in the valley. "The army has already rescued 3.12 lakh people from the flood-hit state. Modi changed the perception of the people towards the Army in Kashmir," he added.