Minister says PoK ‘very much’ on Modi govt's agenda: ‘If Nehru had allowed…’

Narendra Modi's government minister Jitendra Singh in United Kingdom visit reiterated India's plan to retrieve PoK and blamed Nehru for the Kashmir issue.

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Monday reiterated that taking back Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is very much on the agenda of the Narendra Modi-led government. Singh, who is on a six-day visit to the United Kingdom, also claimed that the issue of PoK would have never risen had the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru allowed the then home minister Sardar Patel to handle the region the same way he was handling other princely states. The minister made the remarks during an interaction with the London-based Jammu & Kashmir origin social groups and students.

Union minister Jitendra Singh in interaction with the London-based Jammu & Kashmir origin social groups and students.(Twitter/@DrJitendraSingh)

"It is very much on the agenda of the government led by prime minister Modi and the BJP as a political party to retrieve the illegally occupied PoJK from the control of Pakistan and restore it back to India," the science and technology minister said, according to an official statement.

He also thanked them for changing the “anti-India narrative.”

Singh, who represents J&K's Udhampur in Lok Sabha, blamed the previous governments for “several anomalies” that PM Modi had sought to correct since taking over in 2014.

“If only the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had allowed the then home minister Sardar Patel to handle Jammu and Kashmir in the same manner he was handling other princely states of India, today the part of Jammu and Kashmir that is illegally occupied by Pakistan would have been a part of India and the issue of PoJK would have never have risen.”

The minister continued that the repeal of Article 370 has given the people of Jammu and Kashmir a sense of belonging. He said that PM Modi would be remembered for having provided justice to both the daughters of J&K who had been denied their constitutional rights to citizenship and property ownership, as well as to the Pakistani refugees who had relocated to the union territory.

The groups that participated in the discussion with Singh informed him about their recent initiatives to unite groups of people of Indian origin against "anti-India elements".

The minister told them that the moment had come to develop “our own narrative so that false narratives created by our adversaries do not gain the upper hand.”