Bangalore, Nov 14 (KMW): Adding fuel to the partition issue, former External Affairs Minister and senior diplomat Natwar Singh today said it was a mistake on the part of India to have approached UN Security Council (UNSC) following the so called ‘tribal invasion’ of Kashmir during the creation of India and Pakistan under chapter six of the UN Charter.
Speaking at the 124th birth anniversary of the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, organised by MVR Foundation here, Mr Singh who had served as an official in the foreign service and also in the PMO said there had been efforts to paint the former PM Nahru as responsible for the Kashmir debacle. The decision to approach the UNSC was the decision of the Cabinet and the then Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was very much party to the decision.
Mr Singh said the last British Governor General Lord Mountbatten insisted on India approaching the UNSC as he feared a war between India and Pakistan. The mistake was in approaching under Chapter six of the UN Charter which provided for arbitration. It should have been under Chapter seven — against Mohammad Ali Jinnah sponsored ‘aggression’ against Kashmir as India got Kashmir only after the King had signed the accession treaty with India. Mr Nehru had agreed for ceasefire and a plebiscite and it was to the credit of former Foreign Minister V Krishna Menon to bail out India arguing that there was no need for a plebiscite since the general elections in Kashmir had taken place in the most open transparent manner.
