New Delhi, Jan 11 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir's accession toIndia was the will of the people of the state, CultureMinister Mahesh Sharma today said.
Sharma was inaugurating an exhibition at the NationalArchive Museum here commemorating 70 years of the state'saccession to India.
The exhibition has on display war diaries withoperational details of the Indo-Pak war of 1947-48, originalletters, telegrams, documents, and citations.
All these have been publicly shared by the Ministry ofDefence for the first time.
"The purpose of curating this (exhibition) is to show theyoung generation how Kashmir became a part of India. It (Theaccession) was the will of the people of Kashmir," Sharmasaid.
"Maharaja Hari Singh, when he signed this instrument (ofaccession), only after that, I repeat, only after that, theIndian forces went to that area. This needs to be showcased,"he said.
Sharma said the people of Kashmir have been "sometimesquestioned" but they have accepted the Gandhian thought andphilosophy and want to be in India.
"..and that has been rightly showcased by this exhibitionthrough the pictures," said Sharma.
He urged the youth to visit the exhibition to know moreabout the accession of then 'riyasats' (princely states) tothe Indian Union.
"This is what our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visionis of 'ek bharat, shreshta bharat' (United India, superiorIndia)," he said.
Asked about the presence of divisive elements in thestate, Sharma said the prime minister and the people ofKashmir had been giving them befitting replies over the years.
"And more such replies will follow," said Sharma. PTI ASGCHT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.