Monday, May 9, 2016

Plebiscite would never happen in Kashmir, said Ayub Khan in 1959 - Times of India

Plebiscite would never happen in Kashmir, said Ayub Khan in 1959:



Husain Haqqani forgets that the hate-India psyche that created Pakistan is still dominant in Pakistan.



One of the little incidents I did not write in the book -- in 1949, Prime Minister (Jawaharlal) Nehru was invited to the United States. It was the first visit by independent India's PM. According to the declassified minutes of the meeting with President Truman, he asks Nehru, "what can we do for India?" Nehru talked to him about how India needed to modernize its agriculture and build institutes of technology similar to MIT. He also asked for American assistance in these massive projects.

A few months later, Pakistan PM Liaquat Ali Khan was invited to Washington. He too met President Truman, who asked him the same question. Liaquat took out of his pocket a list of the military equipment Pakistan needed and handed it over. This episode of two prime ministers right at the beginning encapsulate the different national priorities. The consequence of those priorities is what we are living with today.

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