145;Mountbatten redrafted plan for Nehru146;

Plan, rethought, was resubmitted to London much to India Office and Attlee8217;s confusion: Pamela

India8217;s last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten had to redraft the plan to give dominion status to both India and Pakistan after Jawaharlal Nehru, who shared a 8220;special relationship8221; with the Viceroy8217;s wife Edwina, rejected many points of the plan saying it was tantamount to the 8220;Balkanisation8221; of the country.

Nehru, who was prone to mood swings, was invited by Lord Mountbatten to Shimla to get a feedback on the plan. But Nehru turned down the plan and wrote a 8220;bombshell8221; letter to the Viceroy, writes Pamela Mountbatten, the Viceroy8217;s younger daughter in her book India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of Power.

8220;8230; my father began soul-searching and decided to show Nehru the Mountbatten Plan to get his feedback. Nehru was incandescent and kept Krishna Menon up till dawn the night that he arrived, dictating the bombshell letter dated the 11th May 1947 to my father which rejected many points of the plan which he saw as the Balkanisation of his country. My father rethought and with the incredible Menon, redrafted the whole plan8230;,8221; writes Pamela.

Following Nehru8217;s rejection of the plan, Lord Mountbatten 8220;rethought and8230;resubmitted it the plan to London 8212; much to the India Office and Attlee8217;s confusion and perturbation8221;, points out Pamela, who was 17 at the time. Mountbatten then travelled to London and got the amendments to the plan 8212; already agreed to by Nehru 8212; 8220;approved8221;.

Mountbatten returned 8220;8230;to India victorious and able to press ahead urgently with the moves that would lead to Dominion Status for both India and Pakistan. The first thing that was needed was to meet and get the Indian leaders8217; agreement8230;, and secondly, it needed announcing to the country and the wider world,8221; she writes.

The Viceroy also saved Nehru 8212; a Kashmiri Brahmin 8212; 8220;who was emotional about the Kashmir problem8221; humiliation by convincing the Maharaja of Kashmir to accept the Mountbatten plan. 8220;Nehru being a Kashmiri was intent on travelling to Kashmir himself to see the Maharaja, but my father realised the dangers inherent in that plan and luckily we could take up a long-standing invitation to visit the Prince ourselves. Edwina8217;s special relationship with Pandit Nehru was very useful for the Viceroy too.

8220;If things were particularly tricky my father would say to my mother, 8216;Do try to get Jawaharlal to see that this is terribly important8230;8217;8221;