'Edwina behind Nehru's UN referral on J&K' 18 Jul, 2007, 0526 hrs IST, TNN
NEW DELHI: If Lord Mountbattens daughter is to be believed, extra-political considerations played a role in New Delhis decision to refer the Kashmir issue to the UN. Pamela Hicks, the last viceroys daughter, told a private TV channel that Lord Mountbatten used his wife Edwina, who shared a deep emotional love with Jawaharlal Nehru, to influence him to refer Kashmir to the UN. That is true and he did use her like that. But he certainly wasnt going to throw her, he didnt say to her go become the prime ministers lover because I need you to intercede. It was a by-product of this deep affection, Ms Hicks said in an interview. She was replying to a query on whether Lord Mountbatten used the Edwina-Nehru relationship to influence him in the handling of the Kashmir issue. Ms Hicks, who has recounted the relationship between Nehru and her mother in the book India Remembered: A Personal Account of the Mountbattens During the Transfer of Power, said it was possible that Edwinas influence played a role in Nehrus decision to refer Kashmir to the UN. I think it could have been my father, just in dry conversation might have been able to get his viewpoint over. But with my mother translating it for Panditji and making, you know... appealing to his heart more than his mind, that he should really behave like this, I think probably that did happen, she said. This was in reply to a question whether Nehru decided to refer Kashmir to the UN under Lord Mountbattens advice and whether this was an area where Edwinas influence could have been particularly useful. Yes, I think so, Ms Hicks said on whether her father had a bit of influence on Nehru through Edwina. Ms Hicks insisted that the relationship between Nehru and Edwina was platonic. Nehru was a very honourable man who liked my father. There was a great affection between the two, and it was nearly always in my fathers houses either in England or India that they were together, and I think he (Nehru) would never have dishonoured his friends, she said. I believe just that they loved being together they might like to hold hands or to hug or something like that. (But) I dont believe, I really dont believe because of the fact that my father was so often around and that there was not a hint of that, Ms Hicks said. She said the love between Nehru and Edwina made her mother an easier person to be with. My mother was so happy with Jawaharlal, my father knew that it helped her because a woman can, after a long marriage... a woman can feel perhaps frustrated, and perhaps neglected and so if a new affection comes into her life, a new admiration, she blossoms and shes happy, Ms Hicks noted. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Edwina_behind_Nehrus_UN_referral_on_JK/articleshow/2212559.cms --------------------------------- Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more.
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