Lord Mountbatten "used" Edwina to influence Nehru on Kashmir

New Delhi: Lord Mountbatten "used" his wife Edwina, who shared a "deep emotional love" with Jawaharlal Nehru, to influence India’s first Prime Minister to refer the Kashmir issue to the United Nations, according to the last Viceroy’s daughter.

"That is true and he did use her like that. But he certainly wasn’t going to throw her, he didn’t say to her go become the Prime Minister’s lover because I need you to intercede. It was a by-product of this deep affection," Lady Pamela Hicks said in an interview to Karan Thapar in his programme ‘Devil’s Advocate’ to be aired on CNN-IBN.

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.

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 Edwina’s influence played a role in Nehru’s 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 on whether Nehru decided to refer Kashmir to the UN under Lord Mountbatten’s advice and whether this was an area where Edwina’s influence could have been particularly useful.

"Yes, I think so," Hicks said on whether her father had a bit of influence on Nehru through Edwina.

Source: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=89644