Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), Jan 2: Flaying the Jawaharlal Nehru government for approaching the United Nations over the Kashmir issue in 1947, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today accused the previous Congress governments of wasting chances to settle the problem and failing to curb the growing penetration of ISI in India over the past 20 years.

He also underlined that the Vajpayee government had belied apprehensions in the world “spread by the Congress” about the BJP being war-mongers by making “sincere” attempts to establish friendly relations with Pakistan.

“There would have been no Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok) if we had not approached the United Nations in 1947 after the Pakistani aggression. Due to this move, a ceasefire had to be enforced when our troops were pushing back Pakistani troops, leading to the creation of the Line of Control,” Advani told a gathering here.

Subsequently, a major opportunity to settle the Kashmir problem was thrown away in 1971 when 93,000 Pakistani soldiers were taken prisoners by the Indian troops in a “great victory”, said Advani who was here to launch 10 development projects worth about Rs 100 crore.

When the then Pakistan prime minister Z A Bhutto “came here (India) to take back the soldiers, he should have been told (by the then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi) to give in writing that Kashmir is an integral part of India and his country has no claim on it”, he said.