Shashi Tharoor spars with BJP in Lok Sabha over Sardar Patel’s role in Article 370

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that he was clarifying matters because several members of the ruling party were misleading the Lok Sabha.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday told the Parliament that the BJP’s claim that Sardar Patel was not involved in the decision to apply Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir was not factual.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor during his speech in the Lok Sabha during the debate on revoking Article 370. (LSTV)

Referring to historical records, Tharoor said that Sardar Patel, Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru met at Patel’s house on October 16, 1949 in the presence of then cabinet minister for Kashmir Affairs N Gopalaswami Ayyangar to decide on Article 370.

“In his covering letter, Ayyangar said that he was instructed by Nehru to take the approval of Sardar Patel before they go ahead with Article 370,” said Tharoor. Consequently, on October 17, 1949, Patel gave his consent.

Tharoor said that he was clarifying as several members of the ruling party were misleading the House. Union home minister Amit Shah then rose to clarify that he had spoken on Shyama Prasad Mookherjee and not Patel.

Tharoor then said that it was not Shah, but other BJP ministers including MoS Home Jitendra Singh who had made the reference.

Singh later rose up and said that he found a reference in Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s book on Indira Gandhi, which says that Indira Gandhi had a communication with Shiekh Abdullah while she was in Sweden.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi then interjected to say that there was a context to the communication.