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India failed twice: Manekshaw

India failed twice: Manekshaw

Author:
Publication: Deccan Chronicle
Date: November 4, 2002

Bangladesh war hero field Marshal S H F J  Manekshaw has said India twice lost a chance to resolve the Kashmir  issue during Ayub Khan's regime and  allowed the problem to  grow "big".

Expressing regrets that nobody either in India or Pakistan had been  strong enough to solve the issue, Manekshaw claimed that way back an  option had come up when Pakistani military ruler Ayub Khan had  proposed to late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that as both of  them were unquestioned leaders in their respective countries, they  could move towards a solution of the Kashmir problem.

"Ayub Khan, president of Pakistan, who, though senior to me, was a  friend," Manekshaw told newsmen at the sidelines of a Kargil war  book release.

"I saw Nehru, I told him, I can do what I like in Pakistan and  nobody dare say anything and Panditji, you can commit murder in  India and everybody will say wah! wah! so, can we sort it out," the  former army chief quoted the Pakistani strongman as having told him.

"But Panditji said, "You have no right to be in Kashmir. Kashmir  belongs to us," Manekshaw said Ayub Khan had told him adding, "So it  could have been done then".

He said the second opportunity to solve Kashmir issue came after the  1971 war, when the then Pakistani prime minister Zulfiquar Ali  Bhutto, after promising to cooperate on resolving the issue to late  prime minister Indira Gandhi, got away with only seeking time for  it.

"Bhutto told Gandhi, `I have just taken over from Yahya Khan. If I  do anything now, they will throw me out. Give me a chance, I promise  you, everything will be okay.' But he had no damned intention of  ever doing anything," he said.
 


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