Bihar CM Nitish Kumar visits ailing RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at hospital

New Delhi: Slamming Congress on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Syama Prasad Mookerjee on Wednesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda said that only the grand-old party and then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru refused to order an inquiry into the "mysterious" death of the Jana Sangha founder.
Nadda also hit out at Congress for imposing Article 370 on Jammu and Kashmir. The remarks of the BJP chief came after paying tributes to the Jana Sangha founder.

"He (Syama Prasad Mookerjee) went to Jammu and Kashmir without a permit on May 11. He was arrested on the same date. He died in the Srinagar jail on June 23 in a mysterious way. His mother had written a letter to Nehru demanding an enquiry. Only Congress and Nehru know why the enquiry was not conducted," Nadda said.
"He founded the Jana Sangha because he was saddened by the appeasement policy of Nehru. He said that the imposition of Article 370 is harmful to the country. He gave a slogan against it," he added.
Nadda further lauded PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for scrapping Article 370 from J-K and said that this is a "true tribute" to Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

"We lost a leader but we kept on marching to make his journey come true. Article 370 was scrapped by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. This is a true tribute to Syama Prasad Mookerjee," Nadda said.

The BJP chief said that a "true tribute" to the Sangha founder as a party worker would be to "invest the lives to strengthen our country".
Syama Prasad Mookerjee was the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh and also served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet.

Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951, is the ideological parent organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the BJP's official website, on the issue of the Delhi pact with Likayat Ali Khan, Mookerjee resigned from the Cabinet on April 6, 1950. Later on October 21, 1951, Mookerjee founded Bharatiya Jana Sangh in Delhi and became its first President.

Mookerjee went to visit Kashmir in 1953 and was arrested on May 11. He died as "detenu" on June 23, 1953. (ANI)