NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday took strong exception to certain “controversial and factually incorrect” remarks made by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K Kavitha on Jammu and Kashmir and Telangana, which the party believes could “inadvertently cast serious doubts on the integrity and legitimacy of the Indian Union”.
A rather worked up Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi virtually devoted the entire media briefing to counter the “objectionable” remarks of the first-time TRS MP from Nizamabad.
Kavitha had said, “We need to come out clean on J&K. Few parts were not ours, we should agree, we should redraw the international lines, and move on.”
According to Singhvi, the stand of the Congress and even of Parliament is that the (erstwhile) princely state of Kashmir in its entirety is “an integral, invisible, inalienable part of India, according to the Accession Instrument of 1947.”
He insisted that whatever parts held by Pakistan physically were illegally occupied and therefore, “A few parts were not ours” is not a correct statement either of history or of facts or of politics.The Congress spokesperson asserted that it is important to clarify these things because the foreign leaders, institutions or bodies coming across such statements by an elected representative and member of the Lok Sabha are liable to misunderstand, misquote it and alter India’s stated, established and invariable position.
Singhvi also took exception to her statement claiming that J&K and Telangana were both formed forcefully and annexed to the Indian Union. The whole meaning and purpose of Instrument of Accession is that princely states surrender whatever autonomy they had.