Offlate there are lot of political issues that is bothering me as an Indian. Perhaps the most painful one is the kashmir issue. So I wanted to do some background check on why and how did this problem arise!!
In 1946, i.e. before india got independence, congress wanted to elect a president for its party. At that time, there were 16 states in India, out of which 13 states voted for Sardar Vallabhai patel. But gandhi wanted Nehru to be the congress leader for some reason. Patel being a true patriot and a staunch follower of gandhi request of him not being the first prime minister. Now here I am not sure why gandhi did this. Instead Nehru was made the president of congress then. This i would say was the darkest phase of any congress government.
Then once India got independence, nehru was automatically made the first prime minister of India.
Why patel should have been a the first prime minister??? Patel as home minister Patel merged all parts of India under federal control but Jammu and Kashmir was left out because of Nehru.
When the British mission proposed 2 plans 4 transfer of power, there ware considerable opposition within the Congress to both. The plan of 16May 1946 proposed a loose federation wid extensive provincial autonomy, and the 'grouping' of provinces based on religious-majority. The plan of 16 June 1946 proposed the partition of India on religious lines, with over 600 princely states free to choose between independence or accession to either dominion. The League approved both plans, while the Congress flatly rejected the 16 June proposal. Gandhi criticized the 16 May proposal as being inherently divisive, but Patel, realizing that rejecting the proposal would mean that only the League would be invited to form a government, lobbied the Congress Working Committee hard to give its assent to the 16 May proposal. Patel engaged the British envoys Sir Stafford Cripps and Lord Pethick-Lawrence and obtained an assurance that the "grouping" clause would not be given practical force, Patel convinced Nehru, Rajendra Prasad and Rajagopalachari to accept the plan!!
There is one famous incident that happened during this merger of states. At that time the nizam of hydrabad wanted to an independent state. So when negotiations were going on, Nizam threatened patel with the lives of over 2million hindus staying in hydrabad. In reply, patelji coolly said, 'Its ok if you dont merge with India, but I am worried about the crores of muslims who live in other parts of India. If hydrabad doesn't merge with India, I dont guarantee any of their lives!!' This was the statement by the home minister!!
Why was kashmir left alone?
We had Nehru as our prime minister then!!! Nehru was a Kashmiri and he thought he was better suited to handle the Kashmir issue. He thus took the ill fated step of dealing with this problem himself and did not allow the IRON MAN, Patel, the home minister to deal witd it. Kashmir was a complicated issue and nehru was not smart enough to deal with it.
The Maharaja of Kashmir Hari Singh, who decided he wanted to remain independent. It is difficult to imagine why Nehru did not move decisively at that time.
Pakistan was then encouraging the tribal warriors from the North West to attack Kashmir. The raiders made an advance into the province. Gilgit was taken over and the Maharajas troops were all annihilated. Still Nehru did not wake up(sleeping in the mountain with?? ) and waited on the advice of Mountbatten, for the instrument of accession duly signed by the Kashmir ruler. It cannot be understood what kept Nehru from ordering the Indian Army into Kashmir at this critical juncture, when the raiders were advancing into the valley.
The tribal's reached Baramulla and occupied it. They soon however continued their advance on Srinagar. Still Nehru dutifully waited for the instrument of accession. How nice it would have been if Nehru had followed the dictum 'offense is the best form of defense 'and sent in the Indian army when the tribal's had just begun their advance into Kashmir. But being naive and having no idea of the politics of power he just waited and waited. The Pakistan aided tribal's reached Srinagar and that's the time the Maharaja panicked and signed the instrument of accession. In hind sight history will judge Nehru for his biggest blunder here. His failure to react to a fluid military situation and excessive reliance on the advice of Mountbatten resulted in vast tracts of the valley being occupied by the raiders and irretrievably lost forever. It was only when Srinagar airfield was almost occupied that the green signal was given to the Indian army to move in.
Nehru however was an intellectual and had no stomach for any prolonged war. The Army pushed the raiders back and in about 6 months of fighting cleared the valley of the invaders who were aided and abetted by the Pakistan army. The Indian general staff then made plans to advance into western Kashmir, but Nehru again committed a fatal blunder. He stemmed the tide of the Indian army and agreed for a cease fire and reference to the United Nations. It's difficult to understand what prompted Nehru to do this. Perhaps the facts will come out later, but there is no doubt that he was greatly influenced by Lord Mount batten and his family.
The blunders of Nehru did not cease there, but he made another commitment that was to hang around the neck of subsequent Indian governments that followed. He promised a plebiscite in the valley at a suitable time .In a state where religion is the by word and the two nation theory accepted by the Hindu and Muslim leaders, a plebiscite can never go in India's favor.
Nehru thus laid d seeds of a perpetual conflict. I always wish that the clock can be put back and Nehru had intervened when the raiders had just entered the valley. Perhaps his mind did not accept that power politics is all about military power. Rosy ideas and philosophy cannot replace the power of a nation which rests on military might. He blundered and tied the Indian nation to a perpetual problem in Kashmir. In hind sight his listening to the advice of Mountbatten and waiting for the instrument of accession to be signed, his acceptance of a cease fire and reference to the United Nations coupled with the offer of a plebiscite, will show him forever as a man who never understood the game of power politics. History may judge Nehru harshly for these blunders.
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This is what the nehrus and gandhis have done to India!! There are some unanswered questions that questions how mahatma was gandhi actually? like for example, why did gandhi want nehru to be congress president even though 13 of the 16 states voted for patel? Why dint gandhi intervene when nehru was playing around with kashmir? Was gandhi competeting for attention with patel? As someone truely said, patel was the true mahatma of India.
Thanks to wiki!! I got most part of this story from there
