Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani has blamed the foreign policy of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the festering sores of terrorism and Kashmir.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani has blamed the foreign policy of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the festering sores of terrorism and Kashmir.
"His (Nehru's) mishandling of Pakistan has left terrorism and Kashmir as two festering sores for our body politic right up to this day," Advani, the chairman of BJP's Parliamentary Board, wrote in his blog on Monday.
"The Congress has always projected Pandit Nehru as an exemplary helmsman of India's foreign policy. (But) the founder of our political movement, Syama Prasad Mookerji, on the other hand, regarded Panditji's handling of Pakistan, as well as China, as two egregious blunders of his," wrote Advani quoting extensively from Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World.
The remarks come a day after the BJP asked the Congress-led government to call off its proposed talks with Pakistan in the wake of the Pune bombing on Saturday that killed nine people.
Advani also slammed Nehru for his mishandling of China and refusing a permanent seat for India in the UN Security Council because "he did not want the US to marginalise" Beijing.
"Sadly, the shock that Nehru suffered when confronted by China's gross betrayal in 1962 virtually cost him his life," the BJP leader said.
"There can hardly be a more glaring instance of Nehruji's unconcern for India's strategic interests than his refusal to accept a US offer in 1955 of a permanent seat in the UN Security Council."
Advani alleged that Nehru "insisted that the seat be given to China".
"Nehru declined to accept the US proposal, his argument was that he did not want US to marginalise China. We thereby only hurt our own interests."
Advani also recalled the 2008 conclave of BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) at Yekaterinburg in Russia.
"At this conclave, Russia pressed that the conclave support India's plea to secure a permanent place in the UN Security Council. Russia's move did not succeed because it was strongly opposed by China," he added.
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