NEW DELHI: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said India had full rights to take any decision on Jammu and Kashmir as Pakistan had violated the UN charter in 1965 through aggression, ending the issue of referendum.
Replying to a debate on the resolution for abrogating some provisions of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation bill, Shah said under the United Nations charter, armed forces of a nation would not violate the territorial integrity of another country.
"The day in 1965 Pakistan violated this provision, the charter was violated. The question of a referendum ended with Pakistani aggression. Hence, Government of India has full rights to take any decision regarding its territorial integrity. This was even agreed to by the UN," he said.
Shah asked the opposition who took the Kashmir matter to the UN and who brought in a unilateral ceasefire in 1948.
"It was (former prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru who took Kashmir issue to the UN. Had our forces given a free hand to deal with the situation, PoK would have been a part of India today", he said.
Shah also slammed Congress leader Adhir Rajan Chowdhury who stoked a controversy by seeking to know from the government whether Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter or a bilateral issue, saying the UN was monitoring the situation there since 1948.
He challenged the opposition to clarify their stand on the floor of the House, whether they support UN mediation in Kashmir. "The opposition in a way has questioned the competence of Parliament by raising this point," he said.
Shah asked the members, "How can patriots of India who can sacrifice their lives for the country not get perturbed by such a question?" The home minister said India will continue to claim the territories of Jammu and Kashmir under the occupation of Pakistan and ruled out any talks with separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference.
Shah also said the Modi government will have no hesitation in restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir when normalcy returns. "India will continue to claim Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," he said.
Shah said Article 370 was creating doubts over Jammu and Kashmir's relations with India.
"This is not a historical blunder but we are rectifying the historical blunder," he said dismissing the opposition charges that the government was committing a mistake.
He also strongly refuted the suggestion that abrogation of provisions of Article 370 was "communal agenda" and said it was discriminatory and against the minorities, women and welfare of the people.
The home minister also ruled out talks with the Hurriyat Conference.
"We don't want to talk to Hurriyat, but we ready to speak to people of Kashmir," he said.
Shah said over 41,500 people had been killed in Jammu and Kashmir due to militancy since 1989 and blamed the Article 370 and Article 35A for the problem.
Defending the government's action to put restrictions in Kashmir Valley in the last two days, the home minister said law and order situation there had not deteriorated and whatever actions were taken were all precautionary.
The government on Monday revoked some provisions of the Article 370 to take away Jammu and Kashmir's special status, and proposed bifurcation of the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, a bold and far-reaching decision that seeks to redraw the map and future of a region at the centre of protracted militancy .
Fulfilling an electoral promise of the BJP less than 90 days after the Modi 2.0 government took power, Shah had announced the decision in Rajya Sabha, which approved both the resolution and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill.