1947- A Love Story

It's official. The country's first Prime Minister was in love with the wife of the last viceroy general.That there was more to the Nehru- Edwina Mountbatten saga than meets the eye was common knowledge. But now there is a stamp of legitimacy to what was till now a rumour. Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the daughter of Lord Mountbatten, writes in her book about the affair her mother had with Nehru.

She says

"The love Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had for Lady Edwina Mountbatten was chivalric and it was not physical"

If it had not been for a damning revelation, this could have been yet another extra-marital affair between two consenting adults, though it involves a Prime Minister.

In an interview to CNNIBN,Lady Pamela says

"My father trusted her decisions implicitly... and of course, her special relationship with Pandit Nehru was very useful for him ever the pragmatist — because there were moments towards the end of our time in India when the Kashmir problem was extremely difficult.Pandit Nehru was a Kashmiri himself, so he was emotional about the problem. If things were particularly tricky my father would say to my mother, 'Do try to get Jawaharlal to see that this is terribly important..."

In other words, the 'weakness' of Nehru was exploited by Mountbaten to have his way in political issues, especially the Kashmir issue. The move to refer the Kashmir issue to the UN is seen by many as a tactical blunder.A full 60 years later, we know get an idea of what transpired behind the scenes.

It is shocking to note that a Prime Minister can be influenced thus. And even more shocking is the deafening silence of the media and the Congress camp.

You expect a PM to be a model citizen- not only in Public life, but alsoin his/her private life. It is a huge embarrasment that a PM compromised on strategic national issues at the behest of his 'lover'.

Nehru might be a statesman. But this reveleation makes me wonder if there were more skeletons in the cupboard.