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| Nehru's flawed beginning, haunting J&K till date | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Oct 16: Jawahar Lal Nehru, by virtue of his association with Sheikh Abdullah before 1947, perceived himself as the sole policy-maker as far as Jammu & Kashmir was concerned. In retrospect, it appears that he was keen that the State should not be integrated in the manner in which the other acceding states were integrated in the Indian Union. For him, Jammu & Kashmir was a special State deserving a special status. So much so, he excluded Jammu & Kashmir from the purview of the States Ministry headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and put it under the care of the Foreign Ministry. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, a close aide of Nehru, was asked to handle Kashmir affair on a day to day basis. Sardar Patel tried to intercede bu1 his sage advice was ignored. Nehru was more keen to listen to the advice of Lord Louis Mountbatten whose interests in Jammu & Kashmir were not favourably disposed towards India. Great Britain's last Viceroy and India's first Governor General ardently believed that Jammu & Kashmir should have gone to Pakistan. Failing that, he ensured that the State's accession to India would become a subject of international dispute by taking the issue to the UN. In fact, Mountbatten (in consultation with Nehru who, in turn, was in touch with Sheikh Abdullah) converted what was an unconditional acce4ssor, into a conditional union with India, subject to a. plebiscite. Since it was his prerogative to acknowledge the Instrument of Accession (similar to that signed by the rulers of other princely states) signed by Maharaja Hari Singh, he added a rider to it: It is my Government's wish that as soon as law and order have been restored in Kashmir and her soil cleared of the invader accession should be settled By reference to the people.
This became the cornerstone of Nehru's subsequent policies on Jammu & Kashmir. And this became the rallying point of separatism in the State. Nehru took it a step further by first offering a plebiscite under UN auspices and later taking the issue to the UN. Both these actions were taken in consul ration with Mountbatten and against the express advice of Sardar Patel who was to ruefully comment later during a conversation with his secretary, V Shankar: "Don't you see we have two UN experts one the PM and the other Lord Mountbatten and I have to steer my way between them.
Why did Nehru needlessly take the issue of Jammu and Kashmir accession to the UN? An answer is provided by V Shankar in Reminiscences of Sardar Patel
"(An) event had occurred which was to have a more profound affection the fortunes of the state and the country than these military events or incidents (the tribals raids organized by Pakistan). Ever since accession had been accepted with rider inserted at Lord Mountbatten's insistence to the effect that the accession would be tested by the wishes of the people 'of the State, lord Mountbatten had been at pains to ensure that our action was not misunderstood by the UN and the constituent powers, big or small. Pandit Nehru with his passion 'for understanding among foreign nations, was. very sympathetic to the approach but Serdar had many mental reservations, He was for utilizing the Opportunity to finalize the accession without much ado or any further formalities. Lond Mountbatten persuaded Pandit Nehru to make a broadcast in which he was to announce that the accession would be subject to a plebiscite under the UN auspices. Knowing full well Sardar's opposition to such a move, Nehru sent him the script of the broadcast at the last minute. Sardar tried to contact Nehru to persuade him into dropping the reference to the UN. But by then it was too late. Nehru had had his way with Jammu & Kashmir to the detriment of the nation, The-.upshot of his short-sighted action: A Security Council Resolution envisaging a plebiscite to determine the future of Jammu & Kashmir and a UN-brokered "truce" which came into effect from Jan 1, 1949, leaving a third of the state under the occupation of Pakistan. (to be continued)
Author is senior BJP leader and former Union Minister. Views expressed here are exclusively his own |
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