Prime Minister of Kashmir continues...

After accession to Pakistan, he could continue to be an absolute ruler of the state. Mr. Ram Chandra Kak, the Prime Minister of Kashmir at that time, had, it was believed, never made any secret of his pro-Pakistan leanings. He had been, it is said, hobnobbing with Pak politicians promising them Kashmir on a platter.

So far as India was concerned, she had no designs on Kashmir, though, if accession had been offered, India would have accepted it. Lord Mountabatten had visited Kashmir earlier in I947 but the Maharaja had refused to discuss the matter with him on the plea of illness. Lord Mountabatten continued advising the Maharaja not to accede to any of the two Dominions without ascertaining the wishes of his subjects by referendum, plebiscite, election or by representative public meetings. Mahatama Gandhi had also visited Kashmir before the Partition. His talks with the Maharaja had produced no substantial results. The Maharaja had remained undecided. If the Maharaja had decided the question of accession before 15 August, 1957, much of the subsequent trouble and bitterness may well have been avoided. But British declarations about the status of the states after independance seemed to the Maharaja and to some of his advisers-to open the way to an independent Kashmir. He fondly believed that with the help of his Dogra forces he might achieve this end.

I soon learnt that a tribal raid was being organised by the Pakistan Government with the acquiescence of the British Governor of the Frontier Province and that a retired officer of the political department was giving it an active shape. The object was to coerce the Maharaja and take possession of the town of Srinagar before the Id which fell towards the end of the month of October. A friend of mine, then in Srinagar, told me secretly all about it. When I talked to the Maharaja about it he told me that he had also been given the same information by some Muslim friends who had travelled from the Frontier Province to Srinagar to apprise him of this.

To be continued......