Kashmir problem created by British, new Bharat is emerging: Guv Ravi

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Friday said that Kashmir problem was created by the British and the then leadership of the country did not realise it but post-surgical strike against Pakistan, nobody will dare to raise their eyes against India as they know there will be a cost. He further added that "the new Bharat is conscious of its 'purushaarth' and is emerging.

Mentioning the violence in Kashmir in the 1990s, the Governor said that "this Bharat must realise its own purushaarth", which he called the country's strength. "There was no reason Kashmir had to go through all the trauma. It was when the British left the country. Our Independence came through the Act of the British Parliament. We also had the first head of state a British, first Chief of Army was British. It was these people who made the problem. And at that time, our leadership didn't realise it," Ravi said while addressing at the inaugural ceremony of 'Vitasta' in Chennai.

The Governor noted the Kashmiri Pandits' tragedy and said that they were "chased out" of their own homes. "When I went to Kashmir in the early 90s, everyone said that Kashmir will not accept violence. It is a land of peace. But the enemy of the nation wanted to destroy the sentiment, thought, and chased the Kashmiri Pandits out. It was a very sad day when our own countrymen had to leave their places. There was a massacre of Sikhs.... This Bharat must realise its own purushaarth. It is our strength, who we are and what we are capable of," he said.

However, the Governor said that the "new Bharat" is emerging now, and cited the instances of the surgical strikes against Pakistan. "After surgical strike, everything is peaceful. Nobody will dare (now) as they know there will be a cost. This new Bharat, conscious of its 'purushaarth', is emerging & we're celebrating it," he said.

Governor Ravi highlighted that India could have had the entire Jammu and Kashmir, had it not taken the matter to the United Nations, and said that it was done under "external pressure and internal confusion". "After the instrument of accession was signed, there was no need for any more talks. We were capable of keeping the entire J-K, Gilgit, Baltistan with us. But somehow, under external pressure and internal confusion, this ambiguity came up. And then we started talking as if the merger of Kashmir was not complete. A fiction was created," he said.

"But then, Anglo-American conspiracy, American President and the British PM wrote a letter: You are using force to push the Pakistanis back? Don't use force, come to the UN, we will fight it. Somehow we were naive, we accepted it and we paid the price of creating a 'temporary' status. People who were absolutely enemies of the nation, they claimed to be a stakeholder," the Governor added. He claimed that those who were the "enemy" of Indianness and India became stakeholders.

"The people who were the enemy of Bharatiyata (Indianness) and Bharat became stakeholders. They started talking as if peace is to be begged until a complete solution was made in 2019 by the removal of Article 370," he said. The Governor said that Kashmir since the time of Rigveda "has been a part of Bharat" and it is today also "a part of Bharat".

"Culture of Kashmir is the Indian culture," he said.