Chunav Flashback: Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and also the longest serving as he held the post for nearly 17 long years, faced various challenges in his first two years in office.
Nehru during the first two initial years in office faced challenges from Hindu nationalist leaders in his own party who were not satisfied with his policies on Pakistan and Hindu refugees.
Pandit Nehru was even forced to resign from the top post. The crisis first erupted when Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who was the founder of Akhil Bharatiya Jan Sangh which later became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned from Nehru's Cabinet.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee was India's first Union minister for industries.
Mookerjee resigned from Nehru's Cabinet over the protection of Hindus who were left behind in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and against the Nehru-Liaquat Delhi pact.
What was Nehru-Liaquat Delhi pact?
The Liaquat–Nehru Pact (or the Delhi Pact) was a bilateral treaty between India and Pakistan in which refugees were allowed to return to dispose of their property, abducted women and looted property were to be returned, forced conversions were unrecognized, and minority rights were confirmed.
The treaty was signed between Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Pakistan's counterpart Liaquat Ali Khan on April 8, 1950. As a result of the pact, both governments agreed to guarantee the safety of religious minorities in their respective nations.
The issue raised by Mookerjee that Pakistan was not a trustworthy nation in protecting minority rights since it had become an Islamic state.
He believed that Pandit Nehru acted weakly over the issue of Hindus who were left behind.
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