Nehru's 97 Major Blunders Page 6

  Yet another wrong choice of Nehru was to include Sheikh Abdullah in the Indian delegation. Writes Howard B. Schaffer in his book, ‘The Limits of Influence—America’s Role in Kashmir’: “The Indians had made Abdullah a member of their UN delegation, no doubt in the expectation that he would be an effective spokesman for India’s cause. They could not have calculated that he would undercut their position by calling for Kashmir’s independence in a private conversation with Austin. Apparently caught by surprise, the ambassador gave Abdullah no encouragement...” Warren R. Austin was the US permanent representative to the UN.

  Nehru’s initial blunder was to take an internal, domestic matter of India to the UN, and make it international. However, having referred the matter to the UN, it was expected of the international-affairs-expert Nehru to put his best foot forward, and win the case for India. Unfortunately for India, Nehru obliged Pakistan with a follow-up blunder: appointing an incompetent to present India’s case!

  Blunder–16 :

  PoK thanks to Nehru

  It was thanks to Nehru’s wrong decision that ‘Pakistan Occupied Kashmir’ (PoK) came into existence, when the Indian army was on the verge of getting the whole of J&K vacated.

  The military commanders directly involved in the operations of clearing J&K from the raiders and the Pak-army were KM Cariappa, the General Officer C-in-C, Western Command, and Major-General Thimayya, the operational commander. As per the biography of late Field Marshal Cariappa, they both requested Nehru for a little more time to clear J&K completely, but to no avail. Thimayya told Nehru the Army needed two weeks more to regain lost territory but Nehru was adamant.

  It is said that Thimayya found Nehru’s attitude inexplicable, and left Teen Murti Bhavan, the official residence of the PM, in disgust.

  The capture of Muzzafarabad, now the capital of PoK, was imminent. The Army, however, was ordered to suspend all offensive operations with effect from 1 January 1949, even though the enemy did not cease fighting. The Indian Army was very disappointed by the decision, but orders were orders. Thanks to ordering of ceasefire with immediate effect by Nehru, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) came into existence; else the whole of Kashmir would have been with India.

  When Cariappa asked Nehru about the decision a few years later, Nehru conceded that the ceasefire order ought to have been delayed!

  Britain had marked out two areas that had to absolutely go to Pakistan—despite J&K accession to India. One was the northern area along the Chinese, Russian and Afghanistan borders comprising Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, Swat and Chitral. This area commanded as much strategic importance to Britain and the West as NWFP in Pakistan. Mountbatten had ensured NWFP went to Pakistan, even though its leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was opposed to the partition of India. The other area was the western strip adjoining Pakistani Punjab to secure Pakistan from India, comprising Muzzafarabad, Mirpur, Bhimbar, Kotli and adjoining areas. Muzzafarabad is now the capital of PoK. What the British had planned, they managed to achieve—thanks to the way Nehru acted, or failed to act.

  I am afraid Nehru is responsible for the prolongation of the problem through his willingness to compromise at every stage. Had Vallabhbhai [Patel] been the man to handle the Kashmir question, he would have settled it long ago. At least, he would never have settled with a partial control of Jammu & Kashmir. He would have occupied the whole of the State and would never have allowed it to be elevated to international importance.

  —NV Gadgil, a Minister in the Nehru Cabinet

  After J&K acceded to India on 26 October 1947, Major William Brown of the Gilgit Scouts, although a British contract officer of the Maharaja of J&K, had the Governor Ghansara Singh imprisoned on 31 October 1947, as per a pre-meditated plan, and hoisted the Pakistani flag there on 2 November 1947, and declared its accession to Pakistan! Major Khurshid Anwar was one of the Pakistani army officers who had organised and lead the Pakistani Pathan tribal invasion of J&K. His deputy, Major Aslam Khan, took charge of Gilgit from Brown. In 1948, Brown was honoured with the “Most Exalted Order of the British Empire”.

  This was totally an illegal action on the part of the British meant to deliberately deny India access to Central Asia. Mountbatten would surely have known of the goings on, but did nothing, or rather, allowed the illegality to quietly happen.

  Blunder–17 :

  Nehru’s Shocking Callousness in J&K

  Here is an account of a Hindu survivor who was a witness to the Mirpur tragedy in J&K in 1947:

  “On November 23 [1947], Prem Nath Dogra and Professor Balraj Madhok met Brigadier Paranjape, the Brigade Commander of the Indian Army in Jammu, and requested him to send reinforcements to Mirpur [a strategic place where more than one hundred thousand Hindus and Sikhs were held up during the first Pakistani aggression over Kashmir]. Paranjape shared their agony but expressed his helplessness because—as per instructions from the army generals—consultation with Sheikh Abdullah was mandatory in order to deploy Indian troops anywhere in Jammu and Kashmir. Paranjape also informed the delegation that Pandit Nehru would come to Srinagar on November 24 [1947] and they should meet him.

  “On November 24, Pandit Dogra and Professor Madhok met Nehru and once again told him about the critical situation in Mirpur. They requested him to order immediate Indian troops reinforcement to the beleaguered Mirpur City.

  “Professor Madhok was amazed at Pandit Nehru’s response—Pandit Nehru flew into a rage and yelled that they should talk to Sheikh Abdullah. Prof Madhok again told Pandit Nehru that Sheikh Abdullah was indifferent to the plight of the Jammu province and only Pandit Nehru could save the people of Mirpur. However, Pandit Nehru ignored all their entreaties and did not send any reinforcements to Mirpur.”

  (Source: http://swarajyamag.com/columns/balraj-madhok-1920-2016-gave-us-definition-of-indianisation )

  Mirpur later fell to Pakistani artillery, and became part of PoK. The Hindus and Sikhs encountered a genocide, and worst orgies of rape and barbarity.

  Blunder–18 :

  Article-370 thanks to Nehru

  Article-370 on J&K is thanks to Nehru, who brought it about at the instance of Sheikh Abdullah, despite opposition by many, including Dr BR Ambedkar and Sardar Patel.

  Nehru had brought in Gopalaswami Ayyangar as a Minister without Portfolio to look after the J&K affairs, snatching the responsibility from Sardar Patel who was in-charge of the States Department. Before his visit to Europe, Nehru had finalised the draft provisions relating to J&K with Sheikh Abdullah, which later became Article 370. He had entrusted to Gopalaswami the task of piloting these provisions through the Constituent Assembly, which he did. His presentation provoked angry protests from all sides. Most were opposed to any discriminatory treatment for J&K. The proposal of Article 370 was torn to pieces by the Constituent Assembly. Ayyangar was the lone defender, and Maulana Azad was not able to effectively support him.

  Mr Abdullah, you want that India should defend Kashmir, India should develop Kashmir and Kashmiris should have equal rights as the citizens of India, but you don’t want India and any citizen of India to have any rights in Kashmir. I am the Law minister of India. I cannot betray the interest of my country.

  —Dr BR Ambedkar to Sheikh Abdullah

  Patel confided to his secretary, V Shankar, on Article-370: “Jawaharlal royega [Nehru will regret this].”

  Why were such special provisions allowed? Couldn’t they have been blocked by the Constituent Assembly? But, thanks to Nehru, they were not blocked. In the debate in the Constituent Assembly, Maulana Hasrat Mohani of UP stated that while he was not opposed to all the concessions that were being granted to his friend Sheikh Abdullah, why make such discrimination; if all those concessions were to be granted to Kashmir, why not to the Baroda ruler too.

  Interestingly, poor Maharaja Hari Singh of J&K was already out of the picture. Special provisions or no special provisions—he stood neither to gain nor to lose. It was Abdullah, who after getting rid of the Maharaja, was trying to secure and upgrade h
is status; and Nehru was so bereft of foresight and so unwise in factoring-in its adverse effects that he allowed it.

  Nehru made a highly improper statement on Kashmir in 1952, when Sardar Patel was no more: “Sardar Patel was all the time dealing with these matters.” Gopalaswami Ayyangar, dismayed by the incorrect statement, confided to V Shankar, “It is an ill return to the Sardar for the magnanimity he had shown in accepting Panditji’s point of view against his better judgment.”

  Jagmohan, who had also been Governor of J&K, writes in his book, ‘My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’: “Article 370 is nothing but a feeding ground for the parasites at the heart of paradise. It skins the poor. It deceives them with its mirage. It lines the pockets of the ‘power elites’. It fans the ego of the new ‘sultans’. In essence, it creates a land without justice...It suffocates the very idea of India and fogs the vision of a great social and cultural crucible from Kashmir to Kanyakumari...Over the years, Article 370 has become an instrument of exploitation at the hands of the ruling political elites and other vested interests in bureaucracy, business, the judiciary and bar...It breeds separatist forces which in turn sustain and strengthen Article 370. Apart from politicians, the richer classes have found it convenient to amass wealth and not allow healthy financial legislation to come to the State. The provisions of the Wealth Tax and other beneficial laws of the Union have not been allowed to operate in the State under the cover of Article 370...”

  The Article 370 is labelled “Temporary provisions with respect to the State of Jammu and Kashmir”, and is included in Chapter 21 of the Constitution dealing with “Temporary, Transitional & Special” provisions. High time this temporary provision was done away with.

  Blunder–19 :

  Blood Brother who Deceived

  One of the critical players in the J&K saga was Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, born in 1905 in Soura, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar. He became famous as Sher-e-Kashmir: the Lion of Kashmir. Sheikh Abdullah’s father was Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim, a middle class manufacturer and trader of shawls. Sheikh Abdullah’s grandfather was a Hindu Kashmiri Pandit by the name of Ragho Ram Koul, who was converted to Islam in 1890 and was named Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the name his grandson took.

  Sheikh Abdullah did MSc in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University in 1930. It was at the University that he became politically active. He formed the Muslim Conference, Kashmir's first political party, in 1932, and later renamed it to National Conference in 1938. The Muslim Conference founded by Sheikh Abdullah was communal: he later changed its name to National Conference only for tactical reasons. Sheikh Abdullah was a protagonist of Kashmiri nationalism linked to Islam; and his role model was Dr Mohammad Iqbal, a scion of another Kashmiri Pundit convert to lslam—like himself—who propounded the ideology of Pakistan way back in 1930.

  Sheikh Abdullah had endeared himself to Nehru—who had called him my blood-brother—and others by projecting an anti-feudal, democratic, leftist, pro-India, pro-Congress, and above all, a secular image: perhaps to get Maharaja Hari Singh out of the way, and then to sit in his place; for his later actions belied that image, and disappointed and shocked the gullible Nehru.

  Sheikh Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir agitation against the Maharajah in May 1946 leading to his arrest. Quit Kashmir, fashioned after Quit India was obviously misleading, for Maharaja Hari Singh, unlike the English, was not an outsider. Acharya Kriplani, who visited Kashmir in May 1946, stated that he was convinced that the Quit Kashmir movement was abusive and mischievous. Yet, Nehru supported Abdullah. Sheikh Abdullah was sentenced to three years imprisonment. In June 1946, Nehru decided to go to the Valley to free Abdullah. Though prohibited to enter the State, Nehru decided to defy the ban. He proclaimed that he wanted to take on the autocratic and the feudal rule that prevailed in Kashmir.

  To have reposed such blind faith in Sheikh Abdullah and in his capability to deliver, grossly overestimating his popularity, and remaining innocently unsuspicious of his intentions, even to the extent of being unfair, unjust and insulting to the Maharaja, reflected negatively on the expected leader-like qualities from Nehru, who, with his spate of blunders, was rapidly establishing himself as the ‘Nabob of Cluelessness’.

  Maharaja Hari Singh had decided in September 1947 to offer Kashmir's accession to India. But it was refused by Nehru, who first wanted Sheikh Abdullah to be freed and installed as the prime minister of the State—something not acceptable to the Maharaja. Was it not queer? The nation being favoured with accession laying down conditions, rather than the state agreeing to merge!

  Sheikh Abdullah was made ‘Head of the Emergency Administration’ in J&K on 30 October 1947 by Maharaja Hari Singh at the instance of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. He took oath as Prime Minister of Kashmir on 17 March 1948. He was accused of rigging elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1951. He was dismissed as Prime Minister on 8 August 1953, and was arrested and later jailed for eleven years upon being accused of conspiracy against the State in what came to be known as the ‘Kashmir Conspiracy Case’. Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed in his place. Sheikh Abdullah was released on 8 April 1964. Nehru passed away on 27 May 1964. Sheikh Abdullah was later interned from 1965 to 1968. He was exiled from Kashmir in 1971 for 18 months. Consequent to the Indira-Sheikh Accord of 1974, he became the Chief Minister of J&K and remained in that position till his death in 1982.

  There is a strange irony between the words and the deeds of Sheikh Abdullah and also his mentor, Nehru. Abdullah impressed Nehru with his stated democratic credentials and railed against feudalism, the Maharaja and the dynasty; but once in power himself, he ensured continuance of his own dynasty! Same with Nehru, who most vociferously railed against the Indian Princely Order and feudalism, but once in power, ensured continuance of his own dynasty!

  This is what BN Mullik, who was the then Deputy Director of the IB (Intelligence Bureau) with charge of Kashmir, and later head of the IB, wrote in his book, ‘My Years with Nehru’: “He [Sardar Patel] suspected that Sheikh [Abdullah] was not genuine and was misleading Pandit Nehru… He [Patel] apprehended that Sheikh Abdullah would ultimately let down India and Jawaharlal Nehru, and would come out in his real colours… Events, as they turned out subsequently, proved that the Sardar was right and I was not. Within three years we found ourselves fighting against Sheikh Abdullah. Sardar Patel was dead by then… Probably things would not have come to this pass at all if Sardar was still alive, because Sheikh Abdullah had a very wholesome respect and fear of him.”

  Writes Howard B. Schaffer in his book ‘The Limits of Influence—America’s Role in Kashmir’ published by Penguin/Viking: “The Indians had made Abdullah a member of their UN delegation, no doubt in the expectation that he would be an effective spokesman for India’s cause. They could not have calculated that he would undercut their position by calling for Kashmir’s independence in a private conversation with Austin. Apparently caught by surprise, the ambassador gave Abdullah no encouragement...” Incidentally, Warren R. Austin was the US permanent representative—their ambassador—to the UN.

  Blunder–20 :

  Wanting Maharaja to Lick his Boots

  Let’s pose a counterfactual: If only Hari Singh had signed the Instrument of Accession earlier! Why did Maharaja Hari Singh vacillate?

  It is true that had Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession earlier, that is, before independence, or by 31 August 1947, perhaps the J&K issue would not have erupted at all. But, you never know. Pakistan would have still created problems. And it certainly had strong backing of Britain and Mountbatten. However, let us try to understand why he signed belatedly.

  After his election as the Congress president in 1946, Nehru gave his full support to Sheikh Abdullah, whom he called his blood brother. Abdullah launched the Quit Kashmir agitation against the Maharajah in May 1946 leading to his arrest. Quit Kashmir, fashioned after Quit India was obviously misleading, for Maharaja Hari Singh, unlike the English, was not an outsider. Kriplani, who visited
Kashmir in May 1946, stated that he was convinced that the Quit Kashmir movement was abusive and mischievous. Abdullah was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

  In June 1946, Nehru decided to go to the Valley to free Abdullah. Though prohibited to enter the State, Nehru decided to defy the ban. He proclaimed that he wanted to take on the autocratic and the feudal rule that prevailed in Kashmir. Autocratic and feudal rule prevailed in the other 547 Princely States too that ultimately merged with India: Did Nehru go to any of those 547 states to similarly protest? Nehru did not seem to realise that the support of the princes and their collaboration would be indispensable in the coming months for persuading them to accede to India. To take on the Maharaja at that stage, and that too as Congress president, did not appear to be politically wise. Sardar Patel and others tried to dissuade him, yet he went.

  He [Nehru] has done many things recently which have caused us great embarrassment. His actions in Kashmir…are acts of emotional insanity and it puts tremendous strain on us to set the matters right.

  —Sardar Patel wrote to DP Mishra

  Even Gandhi, when he went for his only visit to Kashmir in 1947, pointedly rejected the hospitality of the Maharaja, and remained the guest of the National Conference of Abdullah.

  Rebuffed thus by Gandhi, having been consistently rubbed the wrong way, experiencing the hostility of Nehru towards him over the last many months, and watching the commitment being shown to his arch enemy, Abdullah, why Hari Singh, anybody in his place—Nehru himself, were he in Maharaja's shoes—would have hesitated to accede to India.

  Hari Singh calculated that he only stood to lose by joining India, and that he would have no future with Nehru and Gandhi at the helm. Pakistan he surely did not wish to join. But the Maharaja certainly did not relish the insistence from Nehru (when Maharaja offered accession in September 1947) to first hand over power to Sheikh Abdullah—as if he were some foreign power who should hand over power to a native. So, the Maharaja started considering his option for independence, which was legally permissible. Incidentally, while Pakistan had signed Standstill Agreement (status quo) with J&K; India did not sign it, even though offered. Why?