NO SETTLEMENT WITH PAKISTAN

Nehru failed to reach an accommodation with Pakistan during his life time, making our western and north western borders sensitive, costing us heavy to secure them. The crux of the Indo-Pak dispute was Kashmir; and Pakistan was unwilling for settlement and for no-war pact till the Kashmir issue was resolved. Kashmir would have been a non-issue had Nehru allowed Sardar Patel to handle it; or had Gandhi not made Nehru the first PM. It was Nehru’s responsibility to resolve the issues he had created. Nehru unfortunately expired leaving both the issues—Kashmir and Indo- Pak settlement—unsolved.

The India-Pakistan Indus Water Treaty (IWT) of 1960 on sharing of waters from the six Indus-system rivers was an unprecedented (by any nation) generous “give away” (like the India-China Panchsheel agreement of 1954: Blunder#34) by Nehru to Pakistan at the cost of J&K and Punjab (Blunder#50), with no reciprocal “take”. It didn’t occur to Nehru to make it conditional upon Pakistan settling on J&K and other matters to ensure secure western and north western borders.

Intended to palliate India’s alarm at Pakistan’s entry into SEATO in 1958, General Ayub Khan proposed security alliance/pact with India to Nehru. Nehru summarily and scornfully rejected the proposal remarking security alliance “against whom?”