Why did Nehru Support Abdullah?
On October 26, 1947, a meeting at Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s residence would eventually decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir. We get the full story of what happened that day, in Former Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Mehr Chand Mahajan's autobiography, Looking Back.
“Give army, take accession and give whatever powers you want to give to the popular party (National Conference headed by Sheikh Abdullah), but the army must fly to Srinagar this evening, otherwise I will go and negotiate terms with Mr (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah (founder of Pakistan) as the city must be saved,” cautioned Mehr Chand Mahajan to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Nehru fumed at the J&K PM, “Mahajan, Go away.”
As Mahajan got up to leave, Patel detained him and murmured in his ear, “Of course, Mahajan, you are not going to Pakistan.”
As Mahajan’s threat to go to Lahore to sign a deal with Jinnah hung in the air, a piece of paper was passed on to Nehru.
“Sheikh Abdullah, who was staying in the Prime Minister’s house, was overhearing the talks. Sensing a critical moment, he sent in a slip of paper to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister read it and said that what I (Mahajan) was saying was also the view of Sheikh Sahib,” recollects Mahajan. “His (Nehru’s) attitude changed completely.”
Abdullah, an avowed enemy of Jinnah, wanted to head the government in the state and opposed the idea of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.
Mahajan’s telling account of the accession of Kashmir to India comes from his autobiography which was first published in 1963.
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| Sheikh Abdullah with Nehru |
Most importantly, he played a key role in Kashmir's accession to India as J&K’s Prime Minister during Maharaja Hari Singh's reign between October 1947 and March 1948 when Sheikh Abdullah succeeded him. Later, Mahajan became a Supreme Court judge and retired as the third Chief Justice of India in 1954.
The most interesting fact is that Mahajan had become the PM only on 15 October 1947- he visited Kashmir at the invitation of the Maharani Tara Devi in September 1947 and was asked to be the Prime Minister. He served in that post until 5 March 1948. Tara Devi, mother of Dr Karan Singh, separated from Hari Singh in 1950.
“As per my understanding, Mahajan is the only one among the protagonists of the episode who has left us with the written account of the extremely crucial meeting and his integrity is unimpeachable,” said Karan Singh, son of Hari Singh.
Mahajan records that by October 24, 1947, tribal raiders from Pakistan had reached the borders of Srinagar.
By mid-October, small bands of armed mercenaries - now viewed as Pakistan's attempt to test whether Indian forces were rushing to rescue the King - had started guerrilla raids on bordering villages. Pakistan was now ready to invade the Kashmir Valley but it carried out its military mission masquerading as raids by tribal invaders. In truth, the whole operation - codenamed Operation Gulmarg - was placed under Pakistan Army's officers. This has been detailed in a book, Raiders in Kashmir, by Pakistan Army's retired Major-General Akbar Khan, who was part of the military plan.
On October 22, thousands of tribal mercenaries and Pakistan Army regulars invaded the Kashmir Valley overrunning the outposts manned by the King's forces in Muzaffarabad and other places as they headed towards Srinagar, their ultimate target.
Records Akbar Khan: “On October 26 (1947), the Pakistani forces captured Baramulla where only 3,000 survived out of 14,000. The troops were now only 35 miles from Srinagar when the Maharaja (Hari Singh) sent his papers of accession to Delhi asking for help.”
According to Khan, at the beginning of September 1947, he was asked by Mian Iftikharuddin, then a leader in the Muslim League (the ruling political party) to prepare a plan to take over Kashmir.
“Ultimately, I wrote a plan under the title of “Armed Revolt inside Kashmir”. As open interference or aggression by Pakistan was obviously undesirable, it was proposed that our efforts should be concentrated upon strengthening the Kashmiris themselves internally -- and at the same time taking steps to prevent the arrival of armed civilians or military assistance from India into Kashmir,” Khan said.
Giving proof of top leadership’s role in the crisis, Khan Wrote, “I was called to Lahore for a conference with the prime minister of Pakistan Liaqat Ali Khan. On arrival there, I first had to attend a preliminary conference at the Provincial Government Secretariat in the office of Sardar Shaukat Hayat Khan who was then a minister in the Punjab government. I saw copies of my proposed plan in the hands of some...”
“On October 22, the operation began with Pakistani forces crossing the border and attacking Muzaffarabad and Domel on October 24 from where the Dogra troops had to withdraw. The next day these troops moved forward on the Srinagar road and again took on the Dogras at Uri... On October 27, India intervened and sent troops to Kashmir,” Khan wrote.
In the summer of 1947, Hari Singh had toyed with the idea of remaining independent, a kind of Switzerland of Asia, but with Pakistan organising a raid on the state, the Dogra King was left with no option but to accede to India. He dispatched his deputy Prime Minister Ram Lal Batra to Delhi with the proposal of accession.
Hari Singh sent two personal letters to Nehru and his deputy PM Sardar Patel, seeking military help. Despite Batra reaching Delhi, there was no sign of Indian military help in Srinagar.
Meanwhile, Jinnah had decided to celebrate Eid at Srinagar. According to Mahajan, Jinnah ordered his British commander-in-chief Frank Walter Messervy, to march two brigades of the Pakistani army into J&K on October 27, one from Rawalpindi and the other from Sialkot.
The Sialkot brigade was to take Jammu and capture Hari Singh while the Rawalpindi brigade was to reach Srinagar. But Messervy refused to march the troops of one dominion to fight those of another dominion (of the UK) without consulting the supreme commander of both the dominions. Hence, Mahajan rushed to Delhi.
Hari Singh appealed to Lord Mountbatten, the Governor-General of India for Indian military aid. In his Accession Offer dated 26 October 1947 which accompanied The Instrument of Accession duly signed by him on 26 October 1947, Hari Singh wrote "I may also inform your Excellency's Government that it is my intention at once to set up an interim Government and ask Sheikh Abdullah to carry the responsibilities in this emergency with my Prime Minister."
The Supreme Commander Claude Auchinleck told Jinnah on October 26 that Kashmir had decided to accede to India, which therefore had the right to send troops at Maharaja’s request. Jinnah then cancelled his orders.
The next morning, the Indian army landed in Srinagar following the offer of accession as well as the Maharaja’s promise to consider handing over power to Sheikh Abdullah.
A few days later, as per the desire of Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah was sworn in as head of the emergency administration and as the Prime Minister of the state, from March 5, 1948.
He raised a force of local Kashmiri volunteers, dubbed as Dagan Brigade to patrol Srinagar and take control of administration after the flight of the Maharaja along with his family and Prime Minister Meher Chand Mahajan to Jammu even before the Indian troops had landed. This group of volunteers would serve as the nucleus for the subsequent formation of the Jammu and Kashmir Militia. This, Abdullah hoped, would take over the defence of Kashmir after the Indian army was withdrawn.
This was articulated in his letter to Sardar Patel dated 7 October 1948 in which he wrote, "With the taking over of the State forces by the Indian Government, it was agreed that steps would be taken to reorganise and rebuild our army so that when the present emergency is over and the Indian forces are withdrawn the State will be left with a properly organised army of its own to fall back upon." Abdullah has alleged that most of the Muslim soldiers of the Militia were either discharged or imprisoned before his arrest in 1953.
The Rise of Abdullah
Abdullah was born on 5 December 1905 in Soura, a village on the outskirts of Srinagar, 11 days after the death of his father Sheikh Mohammed Ibrahim. As claimed by him in his autobiography Aatish-e-Chinar, his great-grandfather was a Hindu Brahmin, a Kashmiri Pandit of the Sapru clan, who converted to Islam after getting influenced by a Sufi preacher. His father had been a middle-class manufacturer and trader of Kashmiri shawls. Abdullah, the youngest of six siblings, had to walk the distance of ten miles to school and back on foot, but in his own words, the joy of being allowed to obtain a school education made it seem light work.
In 1930, Abdullah obtained an M.Sc in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University. There he came in contact with and was influenced by persons with liberal ideas. Abdullah and his colleagues were influenced by the lectures of a Kashmiri polymath and lawyer Molvi Abdullah. Molvi Abdullah's son, Molvi Abdul Rahim, Sheikh Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Gilkar were the first three educated Kashmiri youths to be arrested during the public agitation of 1931.
In 1930, Abdullah obtained an M.Sc in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University. There he came in contact with and was influenced by persons with liberal ideas. Abdullah and his colleagues were influenced by the lectures of a Kashmiri polymath and lawyer Molvi Abdullah. Molvi Abdullah's son, Molvi Abdul Rahim, Sheikh Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Gilkar were the first three educated Kashmiri youths to be arrested during the public agitation of 1931.
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| Mahajan |
Abdullah was introduced to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937. As a leader of the Indian National Congress, he too was demanding similar rights for the people of British India and had formed The All India States Peoples Conference for supporting the people of Princely States in their struggle for a representative government. Thus the two became friends and political allies.
On 27 April 1939, it was decided to rename Muslim Conference as All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.
Suspicious of outsiders, National Conference leaders Abdullah, Abbas and Bazaz declared that it would be most harmful and dangerous to bring the Kashmir Freedom Movement under the influence of any outside organisation. It was decided that the organisation should keep aloof from the Indian National Congress as well as the Muslim League.
Chaudhri Ghulam Abbas, later President of POK, acknowledged Nehru’s influence in the renaming of the Muslim Conference, thus:
“Sheikh Abdullah was now out of our hands and had adopted Nehru as his Guru and probably also as his spiritual leader. In view of the political situation obtaining at the time and the policy pursued by the Maharaja and his Government with regard to Muslims, it was considered by us suicidal to cause disruption in Muslim ranks.”
Nehru, himself of Kashmiri ancestry, and opposed to Jinnah, read the situation politically. Abdullah and the Muslims in his fold entertained feelings of fear, and distrust towards Jinnah. Abdullah knew that he could never be equal in the Muslim League and a leader of Kashmir in an Independent Pakistan. But Nehru treated him as an equal and a brother. In their speeches, Nehru and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan paid generous tribute to Abdullah’s qualities of leadership at the first anniversary of the National Conference at Baramulla. When Nehru entered the pandal, Abdullah himself raised slogans of "Pandit Nehru Ki Jai". Both Nehru and Khan were taken in a boat procession in Srinagar.
On 7 August 1940 at a meeting held at Shitalnath (Srinagar), Nehru told the gathering of Kashmiri Pandit youths:
“If non-Musllms want to live In Kashmir, they should join the National Conference or bid goodbye to the country. The National Conference is the real national organisation and even if a single Hindu does not become its member, it will continue to be so. If Pandits do not join It, no safeguards and weightage will protect them.”
It is difficult to guess why Nehru gave this advice, but it should be read in the backdrop of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley fifty years later, in 1990.
Nehru also defended Abdullah, during the Quit Kashmir agitation in 1947 leaving the crucial negotiations he was conducting with the Cabinet Mission. Nehru was accompanied by three eminent lawyers, Dewan Chaman Lal, Asaf Ali and Baldev Sahai, ex-Advocate-General, Bihar, followed by hundreds of Congress workers. However, Nehru was not allowed to enter Kashmir.
On 29 July 1947, as part of track II diplomacy, Nehru and other Congress leaders persuaded Gandhi to go to Kashmir. In the first week of August 1947, Gandhi visited Kashmir for talks with Maharaja and Begum Abdullah (Sheikh was in jail at that time) for an assessment of the situation and to assure every key player of their honourable place in free India.
Nehru is accused of delaying the acceptance of the Instrument of Accession till Abdullah gave his nod. Nehru is also accused of not liberating the POK in 1947, the part of Kashmir that is now with Pakistan. It is said that Nehru wanted Abdullah’s approval as only he could mobilise Kashmiris against Pakistani raiders. But no reference is found to Nehru’s understanding of the Poonch revolt by Sudhans led by Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan against the Maharaja.
The Sudhan/Poonch rebellion
About 40,000 of the Sudhans had fought in WWII under the Britishers. Many of them joined the Indian National Army of Subhash Bose. Major General Mohammed Zaman Kiani, Chief of General Staff of the Indian National Army, was put in charge by Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to overthrow the Maharaja of J&K in September 1947.
General Kiani established a General Headquarters, GHQ Azad, based in Gujrat, a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. From there, Kiani’s forces organised raiding operations on the Kashmir border and directed the Kashmiri rebels in Poonch, eventually leading to the formation of the POK. Col. Habibur Rehman, from Bhimber in POK, served as his Chief of Staff. It was the same Colonel Habibur Rehman whom Nehru defended.
After the World War, Lt. Col. Shahnawaz Khan, Col. Habibur Rahman Khan, Col. Prem Sehgal and Col. Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon of the INA were put to trial at the Red Fort in Delhi for “waging war against the King Emperor”, i.e., the British sovereign. The four were defended by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Nehru, and Bhulabhai Desai. However, Kaini and Habibur Rehman were not Sudhans.
The popular politics of Kashmir and Kashmiri identity that was evolving to become inclusive of the entire state became fractured and started to be reduced back to the Valley. The leadership of the Muslim Conference from Jammu, particularly Sudhans, saw no role for themselves in the politics of the state in alliance with the National Conference.
Sudhans wanted to have their own hegemony or tribal supremacy of Jirgas in Afghanistan and North-West Pakistan. It became a subplot within a complex problem: the ambition of Sheikh Abdullah vs. an ethnic tribe led by Chaudhary Ibrahim Khan.
Thus, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, a Sudhan, became the first President of the POK. He held the post of President four times, till 1950.
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| Ibrahim Khan |
This led to violent demonstrations, particularly in the Rawalakot and Pallandri areas of Poonch and a showdown occurred between the Sudhans and the Pakistan Army contingents posted in the area. The Poonch situation became so bad that the POK Police could not control it. Members of the Punjab Constabulary of the Pakistani Army were brought in. The Pakistan Army’s 12th Division, with headquarters in Murree and with forces already deployed in POK, joined in the suppression, declaring martial law in Poonch. Some Sudhans captured 120 soldiers of the Punjab Constabulary, and their arms. Sudhan’s anti-government actions started in February 1955 with an assassination attempt in Poonch on the POK President Sher Ahmed Khan. It took one year to suppress the uprising in 1956.
A resistance movement seeking a more democratic state of POK has been active since September 1950. In 1951 a parallel government was formed in Poonch in retaliation to Pakistan’s dismissal of Ibrahim Khan as head of state. The situation calmed down for some time because of Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination.
When Ibrahim Khan was dismissed by Pakistan, a revolt erupted in Rawalakot and Palandri in the Poonch district. A military contingent of 120 personnel led by Major Osman (A Bengali officer who later led Mukti Bahani to establish Bangladesh in 1971 as Brigadier Osman) was sent in to crush the revolt and arrest its leaders. After an initial skirmish, Ibrahim’s forces were defeated and his tribe was disarmed under the guidance of Pakistan’s then Minister of Kashmir Affairs, Mushtaq Ahmed Gurmani.
Over the years, Sudhans lost control of power. They have realised that it is not possible to achieve independence through armed struggle. Mirpuris also seem to have the same goal but they are not a fighting race. They were hated by people from West Pakistan. They slowly started asserting their identity as far back as the Gandhar days. They refused to be known as Pakistani Muslims and successfully got an official status for their language Mirpuri or Pahari.
Nehru was perhaps aware of the ambitions of the Sudhans and their revolt against Muslim Pakistan prevented him from liberating the present POK in 1948. The Sudhans revolted against Muslim Pakistan. If they had fought against India, it would have been more intense and a constant headache for India. Even then, Nehru's bonhomie with Sheikh Abdullah remains still a mystery.
Nehru's deal with Abdullah
Ironically, Abdullah was instrumental in the drafting of Article 370 in the Constituent Assembly (then Article 306A). He even got into intense arguments with Gopalaswami Ayyangar over the provisions of the article. He eventually also fiercely advocated Azadi (independent status) for Kashmir, which was shot down and subsequently also led to his imprisonment.
Ironically, Abdullah was instrumental in the drafting of Article 370 in the Constituent Assembly (then Article 306A). He even got into intense arguments with Gopalaswami Ayyangar over the provisions of the article. He eventually also fiercely advocated Azadi (independent status) for Kashmir, which was shot down and subsequently also led to his imprisonment.
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| Nehru in Kashmir |
In an interview on 14 April 1949 to The Scotsman, Abdullah said, “Yes, independence—guaranteed by the United Nations—may be the only solution. But why do you talk of partition? Now you are introducing communalism and applying the two-nation theory to Kashmir—that communalism which we are fighting here. I believe the Poonchis would welcome inclusion in an independent Kashmir; if however, after its establishment, they chose to secede and join Pakistan, I would raise no objection. we won’t submit to a communal solution. There has never been a religious problem in the Vale of Kashmir. Hindus and Moslems, are of the same racial origin, we have the same customs, wear the same clothes, and speak the same language. In the street, you cannot distinguish between Moslems and Brahman Pandits.”
After the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir arrived at its main decisions, representatives of the Indian government and the State met to discuss their implications. Nehru gave in to Abdullah's demands, and this arrangement between Abdullah and Nehru agreed upon in July 1952 came to be known as the Delhi Agreement. Its main contents are:
1. The Government of India agreed that while the residuary powers of legislature vested in the Centre in respect of all States other than Jammu and Kashmir, in the case of the latter they vested in the State itself.
2. It was agreed that persons domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir shall be regarded as citizens of India, but the State Legislature was empowered to make laws for conferring special rights and privileges on the State’s subjects.
3. As the President of India commands the same respect in the State as he does in other units of India, Articles 52 to 62 of the Constitution relating to him should be applicable to the State.
4. The Union Government agreed that the State should have its own flag in addition to the Union flag, but it was agreed by the State Government that the State flag would not be a rival of the Union flag.
5. The Sadar-i-Riyasat, equivalent to the Governor of other States, will be elected by the State Legislature itself instead of being nominated by the Union government and the President of India.
6. In view of the peculiar position in which the State was placed, in particular, Sheikh Abdullah’s land reforms programme, the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution could not be made applicable to the State. The question that remained to be determined was whether Fundamental Rights should form a part of the State Constitution or the Constitution of India.
7. With regard to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India, it was accepted that for the time being, owing to the existence of the Board of Judicial Advisers in the State, the Supreme Court should have only appellate jurisdiction.
8. The Government of India insisted on the application of Article 352, empowering the President to proclaim a general Emergency in the State. The State government argued that the Union, in the exercise of its powers over Defence, would anyway have full authority to take steps and proclaim an Emergency. In order to meet the viewpoint of the State’s delegation, the Government of India agreed to the modification of Article 352 in its application to Kashmir by adding the words, “but in regard to an internal disturbance at the request or with the concurrence of the Government of the State”, at the end of clause (1).
9. Both parties agreed that the application of Article 356, dealing with the suspension of the State Constitution, and Article 360, dealing with a financial emergency, was not necessary.
Nehru fells out with Abdullah
Despite being instrumental in drafting the provisions of Article 370, Abdullah kept persisting in his fight for the cause of Kashmir’s independence. Constitutional scholar AG Noorani has written that Sheikh Abdullah’s Kashmiri nationalism clashed with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Indian nationalism. It was this very clash which led to his imprisonment in 1953 for 11 years on the charge of plotting accession to Pakistan and waging war against India.
On 8 August 1953, Abdullah was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Sadr-i-Riyasat (Constitutional Head of State) Dr Karan Singh, son of Hari Singh, on the charge that he had lost the confidence of his cabinet (not the house). He was denied the opportunity to prove his majority on the floor of the house and his dissident cabinet minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed as Prime Minister. Abdullah was immediately arrested and later jailed for eleven years, accused of conspiracy against the State in the infamous "Kashmir Conspiracy Case".
According to Abdullah, his dismissal and arrest were engineered by Nehru. To support this view, he quoted B.N. Mullicks' statements in his book "My Years with Nehru". According to A.G. Noorani, Nehru himself ordered the arrest. On 8 April 1964, the State Government dropped all charges in the so-called "Kashmir Conspiracy Case". Abdullah was released and returned to Srinagar where he was accorded an unprecedented welcome by the people of the valley."
After release, he was reconciled with Nehru. Nehru requested Abdullah to act as a bridge between India and Pakistan and make President Ayub agree to come to New Delhi for talks for a final solution to the Kashmir problem. Ayub Khan also sent telegrams to Nehru and Abdullah with the message that as Pakistan too was a party to the Kashmir dispute any resolution of the conflict without its participation would not be acceptable to Pakistan. This paved the way for Abdullah's visit to Pakistan to help broker a solution to the Kashmir problem.
Abdullah went to Pakistan in the spring of 1964. Ayub Khan held extensive talks with him to explore various avenues for solving the Kashmir problem and agreed to come to Delhi in mid-June for talks with Nehru as suggested by him. Even the date of his proposed visit was fixed and communicated to New Delhi. However, before Ayub Khan could make his visit, Nehru died on 27 May 1964. Abdullah was en route to Muzaffarabad in POK when he received the news. He addressed a public rally at Muzaffarabad and returned to Delhi.
After the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir arrived at its main decisions, representatives of the Indian government and the State met to discuss their implications. Nehru gave in to Abdullah's demands, and this arrangement between Abdullah and Nehru agreed upon in July 1952 came to be known as the Delhi Agreement. Its main contents are:
1. The Government of India agreed that while the residuary powers of legislature vested in the Centre in respect of all States other than Jammu and Kashmir, in the case of the latter they vested in the State itself.
2. It was agreed that persons domiciled in Jammu and Kashmir shall be regarded as citizens of India, but the State Legislature was empowered to make laws for conferring special rights and privileges on the State’s subjects.
3. As the President of India commands the same respect in the State as he does in other units of India, Articles 52 to 62 of the Constitution relating to him should be applicable to the State.
4. The Union Government agreed that the State should have its own flag in addition to the Union flag, but it was agreed by the State Government that the State flag would not be a rival of the Union flag.
5. The Sadar-i-Riyasat, equivalent to the Governor of other States, will be elected by the State Legislature itself instead of being nominated by the Union government and the President of India.
6. In view of the peculiar position in which the State was placed, in particular, Sheikh Abdullah’s land reforms programme, the Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Constitution could not be made applicable to the State. The question that remained to be determined was whether Fundamental Rights should form a part of the State Constitution or the Constitution of India.
7. With regard to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India, it was accepted that for the time being, owing to the existence of the Board of Judicial Advisers in the State, the Supreme Court should have only appellate jurisdiction.
8. The Government of India insisted on the application of Article 352, empowering the President to proclaim a general Emergency in the State. The State government argued that the Union, in the exercise of its powers over Defence, would anyway have full authority to take steps and proclaim an Emergency. In order to meet the viewpoint of the State’s delegation, the Government of India agreed to the modification of Article 352 in its application to Kashmir by adding the words, “but in regard to an internal disturbance at the request or with the concurrence of the Government of the State”, at the end of clause (1).
9. Both parties agreed that the application of Article 356, dealing with the suspension of the State Constitution, and Article 360, dealing with a financial emergency, was not necessary.
Nehru fells out with Abdullah
Despite being instrumental in drafting the provisions of Article 370, Abdullah kept persisting in his fight for the cause of Kashmir’s independence. Constitutional scholar AG Noorani has written that Sheikh Abdullah’s Kashmiri nationalism clashed with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s Indian nationalism. It was this very clash which led to his imprisonment in 1953 for 11 years on the charge of plotting accession to Pakistan and waging war against India.
On 8 August 1953, Abdullah was dismissed as Prime Minister by the then Sadr-i-Riyasat (Constitutional Head of State) Dr Karan Singh, son of Hari Singh, on the charge that he had lost the confidence of his cabinet (not the house). He was denied the opportunity to prove his majority on the floor of the house and his dissident cabinet minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed was appointed as Prime Minister. Abdullah was immediately arrested and later jailed for eleven years, accused of conspiracy against the State in the infamous "Kashmir Conspiracy Case".
According to Abdullah, his dismissal and arrest were engineered by Nehru. To support this view, he quoted B.N. Mullicks' statements in his book "My Years with Nehru". According to A.G. Noorani, Nehru himself ordered the arrest. On 8 April 1964, the State Government dropped all charges in the so-called "Kashmir Conspiracy Case". Abdullah was released and returned to Srinagar where he was accorded an unprecedented welcome by the people of the valley."
After release, he was reconciled with Nehru. Nehru requested Abdullah to act as a bridge between India and Pakistan and make President Ayub agree to come to New Delhi for talks for a final solution to the Kashmir problem. Ayub Khan also sent telegrams to Nehru and Abdullah with the message that as Pakistan too was a party to the Kashmir dispute any resolution of the conflict without its participation would not be acceptable to Pakistan. This paved the way for Abdullah's visit to Pakistan to help broker a solution to the Kashmir problem.
Abdullah went to Pakistan in the spring of 1964. Ayub Khan held extensive talks with him to explore various avenues for solving the Kashmir problem and agreed to come to Delhi in mid-June for talks with Nehru as suggested by him. Even the date of his proposed visit was fixed and communicated to New Delhi. However, before Ayub Khan could make his visit, Nehru died on 27 May 1964. Abdullah was en route to Muzaffarabad in POK when he received the news. He addressed a public rally at Muzaffarabad and returned to Delhi.
© Ramachandran
