POK! A thorn in our flesh as described by a serving Chief of our Armed Forces! Thorn pricked by whom? What actually happened 7 decades ago? How was this Historic Blunder of a country 5 times smaller than India was allowed to capture a large chunk of Indian land! Who to blame for the atrocities of POK Indians till date? Can we hold then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru responsible?  Let”™s rewind the History and check the facts”¦.
Oh, but hold on! Do we Indians have an access to Nehru”™s work as PM for 17 long years? Actually, no! Historians and researchers are not permitted the access to original materials like letters and documents known as “˜Nehru Papers”™! They are guarded protectively under lock in the Nehru Memorial Library! These papers are the property of his family ! History lovers are thrust with the partial “˜Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru (1946-1955) edited “properly” by Nehruvian Historians! Pity!
Post Independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, The Iron Man of India created a unified India by integrating 565 princely states . But Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir had his reasons for not signing “Instrument of Accession”! His enmity with Jawaharlal Nehru had roots in the past. Sheikh Abdullah was Nehru”™s close friend who was jailed by Maharaja. Sheikh Abdullah was arrested for leading “Quit Kashmir Movement”. When Nehru had visited Kashmir to intervene over this matter, Maharaja”™s troops had stopped him. Nehru could never forget this insult. This personal grudge played a big havoc in Indian History!
A glaring evidence of Pakistan being a greedy and terrorist country, is in it”™s attack on India just couple of months after partition “¦..The time when the newly formed country should have focused on recuperating from pro-partition upheavals!
Maharaja Hari Singh”™s army tried to tackle armed tribal intruders led by Pakistani General for a short while . But the Muslims in his army deserted Maharaja and joined with Pakistan attackers. Maharaja was alarmed when the Pakistani aggressors reached the outskirts of Srinagar after capturing Uri, Baramulla. Thus cornered , Maharaja  signed the “Instrument of Accession” with India . Nehru then pressurized Maharaja to appoint his close friend Sheikh Abdullah as Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir!
Home Minister, Sardar Patel  took control of the situation . Massive airlift of troops were launched from New Delhi to Srinagar. Within few days the intruders were pushed back from Srinagar and Uri, Baramulla were re-captured by our Indian Army! The going was great! Army was speedily and strategically capturing the large tracks of Indian Land back! Our army was in a commanding position!
But unfortunately, our PM Nehru had ears only for Sheikh Abdullah who advised  not to proceed the army further to recover Indian Land as it was actually the land of Pakistan! One more person he put his faith in was Lord Mountbatten (First Governor of Independent India) . While British were supplying arms and strategic plans to Pakistan to capture J & K, Lord Mountbatten was advising PM Nehru to put the issue in the UN. Nehru even visited the enemy country during the war with the request to Pakistan PM to order his troops to retract! Pakistan PM acted totally helpless! Such a shame!
On 1st Jan, 1948, Nehru appealed to the UN to resolve the issue! This blunder of appeal to UN, in spite of Sardar Patel”™s warning  showed India as a weak nation in the eyes of the world!  Going with Sheikh”™s advice, he even applied for Plebiscite for J&K! UN took sweet 8 months to bring a resolution in India”™s favour! The war was on-going then and UN resolution wasn”™t implemented on ground yet by both the countries! By January, 1949, that is, after 60 weeks of war, both the countries began their Ceasefire!
As per Sheikh”™s advice, Nehru had ordered Army not to proceed to recapture remaining  Indian land. Pakistan troops didn”™t retract from those lands after ceasefire. Thus Pakistan managed to occupy  1/3rd of Kashmir . That”™s the sad story of POK”¦.That”™s how Nehru turned a win-win situation against India!
