Date: 07/11/2013
NEHRU WAS RELUCTANT TO SEND TROOPS TO KASHMIR IN 1947: ADVANI
>
> NEW DELHI: After claiming that Jawaharlal Nehru
>
> Sardar Patel
> "total communalist", BJP leader L K Advani
>
> Thursday stoked a fresh controversy saying the then prime minister was
> reluctant to send army to Kashmir in 1947 even as Pakistani troops
> approached, but the home minister prevailed over him.
>
> Quoting from an interview of Sam Manekshaw
>
> Colonel) by senior journalist Prem Shankar Jha
>
> said in his latest blog that as the tribesmen- supported by Pakistani
> forces- moved closer to Srinagar, a decision had to be taken on moving
> Indian forces there.
>
> However, Nehru appeared reluctant and felt the issue should be taken
> to the UN.
>
> Referring to Manekshaw's claim in the interview, Advani said Lord
> Mountbatten called a Cabinet meeting soon after Maharaja Hari Singh
>
> Instrument of Accession. This was attended by Nehru, Patel and defence
> minister Baldev Singh
>
>
> Manekshaw presented the "military situation" in the meeting and
> suggested the Indian forces be moved there.
>
> "As usual Nehru talked about the United Nations, Russia, Africa, God
> almighty, everybody, until Sardar Patel lost his temper. He said,
> 'Jawaharlal, do you want Kashmir, or do you want to give it away'. He
> (Nehru) said,' Of course, I want Kashmir. Then he (Patel) said 'Please
> give your orders'.
>
> "And before he could say anything, Sardar Patel turned to me and said,
> 'You have got your orders'," Advani said, quoting Manekshaw from the
> interview to Jha.
>
> The Indian forces were then flown to Srinagar to fight the Pakistani
> forces and the Muslim soldiers of Hari Singh who had defected to
> Pakistan.
>
> "This report, involving Manekshaw and Prem Shankar Jha, provides a
> clinching confirmation of the difference between Nehru and Patel over
> the Hyderabad action," Advani said.
>
> On November 5, Advani had written a blog where he quoted from the
> memoirs of M K K Nair, a 1947 batch IAS officer, to say that Nehru had
> called Patel a "total communalist" when the latter said at a Cabinet
> meeting that "police action" will have to be taken against Hyderabad
> as it was trying to join Pakistan.
>
> Advani indicated that he wrote the blog today to counter the Congress
> reaction to his last posting, based on Nair's book, that the IAS
> officer's report about a clash between Nehru and Patel on the issue of
> armed action against the Nizam is "all bunkum".
>
> The senior BJP leader also claimed that Britain sought to thwart Jammu
> and Kashmir's accession to India. Both the Indian and Pakistani army
> were headed by British generals in 1947-48.
>
> Quoting from a website on Gen Roy Bucher, the then Commander-in-Chief
> of the Indian army, Advani says he was opposed to police action in
> Kashmir and told a Cabinet meeting that it is not possible to bring
> the whole of Jammu and Kashmir under control as the British were
> supporting Pakistan.
>
> Pakistan suspected that the Maharaja wanted to accede to India and
> tried to pre-empt his decision by forcibly seizing the state.
>
> Gen Bucher told the Cabinet that if his advice against police action
> in Kashmir was not followed he would resign.
>
> "There was a silence while a distressed and worried Nehru looked
> around. Patel replied, 'You may resign General Bucher, but the police
> action will start tomorrow'," Advani said, quoting from the website.
>
> The British did not want a Indo-Pak war, he added.
>
> "The British clearly did not want the whole of Jammu and Kashmir to go
> to India. There was a widespread feeling in London that if India was
> in control of areas contiguous to Pakistan, the latter would not
> survive," Advani said.
>
> But the website gives credit to Nehru, saying he had decided to strike
> at the bases of the raiders in Pakistan though Mountbatten was opposed
> to this.
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