Nehru my mentor: Karan Singh slams Ramesh

NEW DELHI: A day after Congress took up issue with Karan Singh for not supporting Jawaharlal Nehru against BJP’s attacks in a media column on accession of Jammu and Kashmir, the erstwhile royal of J&K lashed out at the party spokesman for his comments. He said Nehru was his mentor, and the claim that he ducked defending Nehru was “preposterous”. Karan Singh is a Congress veteran.
AICC spokesman Jairam Ramesh Thursday criticised Karan Singh for his column, saying since it came in the backdrop of Union minister Kiren Rijiju’s attacks on Nehru, Singh should have defended the first PM Prime Minister while taking up cudgels on behalf of his father late Hari Singh who signed the instrument of accession.
He also reminded Singh that he owed to Nehru without whose support he would not have achieved much in life. , while alleging that no historical work has made a favourable assessment of Hari Singh.
Slamming Ramesh’s remarks as “unacceptable” and “snide”, Karan Singh, in a statement, said, “He alleges that in some way my article was against Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. This is absolutely preposterous. Pandit ji was my mentor ever since I entered public life at the age of 18 and I will always hold him in the highest regard. To suggest otherwise is outrageous. In fact, I have dedicated my latest book ‘An Examined life’ to him.”
Singh said his column did not deal with Rijiju’s allegations, and they require a detailed rebuttal which Ramesh should work on. “Jairam goes on to make some unsavoury remarks regarding my father. His reading of history is evidently selective.