Arundhati must take back Kashmir statement: Cong leader

Booker Prize-winning author had said Kashmir was not an 'integral part of India. AICC member and ex-minister says she must learn history.

A senior Congress leader on Monday asked writer and activist Arundhati Roy to withdraw her statement that Kashmir was not an "integral part of India", saying it could mislead people.

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"It was really surprising to see such an irresponsible statement from someone who is one of the country's best-known writers," said Satya Prakash Malaviya, a member of the All India Congress Committee.

Roy, a Booker Prize-winning author, said at a seminar in New Delhi on Sunday that "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India -- it is a historical fact. Even the Indian government has accepted this."

Malaviya, a former union minister, said Roy must learn history. "She must withdraw her statement which is contrary to historical facts and could mislead the nation as well as the international community," he said.

Roy "would do better to brush up her knowledge of history and know that the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to the Union of India after its erstwhile ruler Maharaja Hari Singh duly signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947.

"And the state, consequently has become as much an integral part of India as all the other erstwhile princely states have," he said.

Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, too, was present at the convention on 'Azadi--The Only Way'.