PM Modi carrying forward Syama Prasad Mookerjee's legacy: UP CM Yogi

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], July 6 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carrying forward the legacy of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who was devoted to India, said Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday while paying a floral tribute to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder on his birth anniversary.

CM Yogi said that the ideology of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee towards India is being implemented effectively under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The long-standing issue of Article 370, which had been in effect since 1952-1953, was abolished by Prime Minister Modi on August 5, 2019, and the democratic process was advanced in Jammu and Kashmir. Today, Jammu and Kashmir is touching new heights of development," he added.

"The country will always remember the sacrifices made by Dr. Mookerjee for the unity and integrity of India. He was a guiding light for India's industrial and food policies," he added.

He further said that when India's first government after independence led by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru adopted "appeasement" as a policy, Dr Mookerjee resigned from the cabinet and formed Jan Sangh.

"The differences between Mookerjee and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru also came to the fore when the then Nehru government attempted to play havoc with the unity and security of the country by forcibly adding Article 370 to the Indian Constitution," the UP CM said, and added, "At that time, he strongly opposed it and gave the slogan of 'Ek desh mein do Pradhan, do Vidhan aur do Nishan nahin challenge (A single country can't have two Prime Ministers, two constitutions, and two national emblems)."

Mookerjee, who was a politician, barrister, and academician, served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. Syama Prasad Mookerjee was the founder of Bharatiya Jana Sangh.

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.