NEW DELHI: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday termed partition as "greatest mistake in modern India" and said that there would be no discussions on Jammu and Kashmir today if the partition has not taken place.
"The greatest mistake in modern India was the partition. Gandhi ji had said that if a partition takes place, it will happen only over his dead body. He was disappointed and left for Bengal on the occasion of the first Independence Day," he said while speaking at a Vishwa Hindi Parishad event here.
"Had we understood that the partition took place only due to the ambitions of a few people...A large section opposed the partition. If that partition would not have taken place then the discussions on Jammu and Kashmir as is happening today will not be taking place. There would have neither been Article 370 nor the issue of its abrogation. You can see how forward or backwards we went, with one accident in the history," he said.
The minister further stated that the two-nation theory, on the basis of which partition was done, proved to be meaningless the day Bangladesh was formed.
The event was also attended by RSS leader Indresh Kumar.