Goa Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho on Tuesday said Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee might have been "killed" in the jail in Srinagar decades ago as he had opposed the special status for Kashmir.
Talking on a motion to congratulate the Union government for doing away with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under the Article 370, Godinho said Mookerjee's death was shrouded in mystery.
"I feel that Dr Mookerjee was killed in the jail in Srinagar where he was lodged after his arrest for entering Kashmir (without permission in 1953). He used to say that Kasmir belonged to India. He was ready to sacrifice his life for the cause of Kashmir and he was killed," said Godinho.
Godinho said "repealing the Article 370 is a true tribute to Mookerjee", the founder of the BJP precursor, the Jana Sangh.
The minister also paid tributes to Indian soldiers who had died "just to say that Kashmir is a part of India and we should have one flag".
The minister said the children in Kashmir are deprived of basic rights like education, and that people are living in poverty.
"Why should not the people from Chennai, Goa, Bangaluru and Hyderabad have the right to invest in Jammu and Kshmir? The economic activity should be generated in that state," he said.
Other BJP leaders termed the Centre's move to reorganise Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories (UTs), other being Ladakh, as a "tribute to Mookerjee".
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