Masood Azhar row: Jawaharlal Nehru 'original sinner', favoured China for UNSC seat, says Jaitley

Hitting back at the Congress, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the "original sinner" who favoured China over India for permanent membership into the United Nation Security Council.

NEW DELHI: After the Congress attacked the Modi government for its failure to yet again designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley came to its defence alledging that the original mistake, not only on Kashmir but also on China, was committed by Jawaharlal Nehru. Jaitley's remarks came soon after Congress President Rahul Gandhi termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "weak" and "scared" of Chinese President Xi Jinping as Beijing blocked a UN resolution to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist.

Jaitley said Nehru favoured China over India for permanent membership into the United Nation Security Council. "The original mistake, both on Kashmir and China, was committed by the same person," said Jaitley while quoting a letter written by Nehru to Chief Ministers in1955.


Referring to Nehru's "infamous" letter to chief ministers dated August 2, 1955, the minister said it was Nehru who said India taking China's place in the UNSC would be "very unfair for a great country like China".



"Pt. Nehru's infamous letter to Chief Ministers' dated August 2, 1955, states 'Informally, suggestions have been made by the United States that China should be taken into the United Nations but not in the Security Council, & that India should take her place in the Security Council.


"..We cannot, of course, accept this as it means falling out with China and it would be very unfair for a great country like China not to be in the Security Council," he said in a series of tweets.

"Will the Congress President tell us who the original sinner was?" he asked.

The proposal to designate Masood Azhar under the 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, but suffered a setback with China putting a technical hold on it.

The proposal was moved days after a suicide bomber of the JeM killed 44 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.