Seventy years after it established the present Line of Control, the ceasefire between India and Pakistan created an uproar in Parliament on Friday.

During his speech in Parliament, home minister Amit Shah brought up Jawaharlal Nehru’s name and said that if India's first prime minister hadn’t offered a ceasefire in January 1949, the part of Kashmir with Pakistan today would have been with India.

Shah’s speech was peppered with the keywords or phrases dear to the BJP. Besides Nehru, surgical strike, the tukde-tukde gang, and Article 370 were all mixed in with some Congress-bashing.

Earlier in the day, Shah had introduced his first bill in the house, the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, and proposed the extension of President’s rule in the state.

The bill is aimed at replacing an Ordinance (introduced on February 28) to provide reservation for economically weaker sections living in areas adjoining the actual Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. President’s rule was imposed after the BJP pulled out of its coalition government with the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP, on June 19, 2018.

Congress MP Manish Tewari rose to oppose Shah’s proposal and give the house a history lesson. “I want to inform the home minister and this house as to why Jammu and Kashmir is an important issue,” said Tewari. “For this, we have go back to 1947 when India was partitioned.”

He further said that to understand President’s rule and its context it is important to go back in history. Tewari said that an “incompatible” BJP-PDP alliance is to blamed for the current President’s rule in the state, and not the situation there.

In response, the home minister reminded the Opposition of some aspects of history and brought Nehru into the debate.

“They are trying to remind us about history. One-third of Kashmir is not with us, because of whom?” asked Shah. A few voices from behind him said, 'Nehru'. Shah went on: “When Indian forces started chasing out the tribal army from Pakistan, capturing parts until where today’s LOC stands, who offered a ceasefire?” He answered his own question: “It wasn’t us. The then Prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru called for a ceasefire and that part is today with Pakistan. They’ll teach us history!”

He further said that Nehru didn’t take Vallabhbhai Patel, the then home minister and deputy prime minister, into confidence. “If he had, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir would be ours,” he added.