DNA Exclusive: Was there a secret pact between Jawaharlal Nehru and Mountbattens? Details here

New Delhi: The British government is spending crores of rupees to keep some documents related to India's last Viceroy Lord Mountbatten, his wife Edwina Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru secret. They claim that if these documents come out in public, it will have a very bad effect on Britain's relations with India and Pakistan. What is the big secret Britain is hiding?

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (November 17) talked about the classified documents related to the Mountbattens and Nehru which could provide crucial insights into the events surrounding India’s Independence.

The UK government has so far spent about Rs 6 crore on hiding these documents. This money has been spent on legal proceedings. The papers which have not been made public are from the year 1947 to 1948. This was the period when India got freedom from the British rule of 190 years and when India was partitioned giving birth to Pakistan.

Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, had seen those events very closely as he was a part of this process. It is believed that he wrote many such things in his diary, which he never mentioned to anyone. The British government did not reveal them even after his death in 1979. The classified documents also contain some letters exchanged between Lady Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Famous historian Andrew Lownie has written a book on Lord Mountbatten and his wife. He has written in his book that when Nehru was on a vacation with Mountbatten in Shimla in May 1947, he was asked to consider making India a member of Commonwealth countries after independence. But Nehru refused. Lord Mountbatten then asked his wife Edwina Mountbatten to persuade him on the issue. And later Nehru agreed. The author of this book writes that Edwina Mountbatten had saved her husband’s career that day.

The question is why Nehru was discussing internal politics and issues of India with the Mountbattens. Why was he sharing such information with Britain, which ruled India for 190 years?

When India became independent, all the major decisions were taken through consultations between Lord Mountbatten, his wife and Nehru. Was there a secret pact between them that Nehru would become the Prime Minister and Lord Mountbatten the first Governor General of India? Crucial information surrounding India’s Independence such as this would be known only when Britain makes the classified documents public.