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After abrogation of Art 370, RSS wants probe into SP Mookerjee’s death
Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Jana Sangh, forerunner of the BJP passed away in a prison cell in Jammu and Kashmir after he was detained for forcibly entering the state, defying the then law making it mandatory for an Indian to furnish a permit to enter Kashmir.
More than five decades after its founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee gave the clarion call for not allowing two Constitutions, two Prime Ministers and two flags in one nation, in reference to Jammu and Kashmir, the Bharatiya Janata Party has ticked that box.
There is however, an issue linked to Mookerjee that is still pending, a demand periodically raised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP to probe his death while he was imprisoned in Jammu and Kashmir.
The founder of the Jana Sangh, forerunner of the BJP passed away in a cell in Jammu and Kashmir after he was detained for forcibly entering the state, defying the then law making it mandatory for an Indian to furnish a permit to enter Kashmir.
On Mookerjee’s death anniversary on Tuesday, the BJP brass paid tributes to the man who gave the party a task –abrogation of Article 370 that gave the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir its special status.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and a host of other senior leaders paid tributes to Mukherjee.
Reading down Article 370 that made Article 35A that empowered the state assembly to define “permanent residents” for bestowing special rights and privileges on them infructuous is counted as one of the biggest achievements of the Narendra Modi government.
There was however no mention of a probe in the tributes.
On his death anniversary last year, leaders underlined how he “sacrificed” his life for the unity of the country.
The then newly-appointed working president; JP Nadda also added that while the whole country demanded an inquiry into Mookerjee’s death, former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru “did not order an inquiry.”
“History is witness to this. Dr. Mookerjee’s sacrifice will never go in vain, BJP is committed to this cause,” Nadda said.
Similar statements were repeated on July 6, Mookerjee’s birth anniversary.
A month later on August 5, the House of Elders in Parliament witnessed a historic legislation being passed-- the Re-organisation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories and the reading down of the contentious Article 370.
More than 10 months after Abrogation of Article 370, the BJP has renamed Chenani-Nashri tunnel, India’s longest tunnel that links Kashmir with Jammu after Mookerjee, but there is no indication that the government will initiate a probe into his death.
The RSS that has been steadfastly bringing up the need to investigate Mookerjee’s death is not giving up on this demand.
“In 2004, (former PM) Atal Bihar Vajpayee had said there is a conspiracy that needs to be probed. We are hopeful that the government will investigate and put the issue to rest once and for all,” a senior functionary of the RSS said on Tuesday.
In 2004, Vajpayee stoked a controversy with his statement that Mookerjee’s death was part of “a conspiracy” between the then Jawaharlal Nehru-led central government and Jammu and Kashmir government.
