It was the year of 1991. In the Prime Minister’s Office built on the Raisina Hills of Delhi, a person from the village of UP came to take over the power of the country as a patron. For the first time from Ibrahimpatti village, about 65 km from the district headquarters in Ballia, a person had reached the highest office of the country’s power. The name of this person was Chandrashekhar, who was called one of the biggest leaders of socialist ideology in the country at that time. Chandrashekhar was popularly known as Young Turk. Hanak Chandrashekhar, who had a chubby tongue, a grown beard, kurta and ‘Babu Saheb’ of UP, was defined in these words. This color of Chandrashekhar was visible even while he was PM. He did not remain the Prime Minister for long, but his personality was such that even Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif did not get tired of praising him. There are many famous stories of Chandrashekhar’s political life. From Indira Gandhi to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Chandrashekhar was dear to everyone and also important to everyone. An anecdote from Chandrasekhar’s life is also related to Pakistan and Maldives. In 1991 that year, Chandrashekhar met the then Wazir-e-Azam Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. In this meeting, Nawaz Sharif asked for Kashmir from Chandrashekhar, then Chandrashekhar accepted his demand and placed a condition in front of him.
It’s 1991….
In that year of 1991, Chandrashekhar was the Prime Minister of the country and Nawaz Sharif was the Wazir-e-Azam of Pakistan. Both had come in this capacity to participate in a summit of Commonwealth countries. Senior journalist Santosh Bhartiya has written this incident in great detail in his book ‘VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Sonia Gandhi and Me’. According to the book, Chandrashekhar was just getting off the stage after delivering his speech at the conference when he caught sight of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who was present there. Chandrashekhar met Nawaz Sharif, after some formal activities, Chandrashekhar said – you do a lot of bullying. Nawaz Sharif said- Remove the reason of bullying. Chandrashekhar asked in response- Tell me, what is the reason.
‘There is a condition, just accept it’
Nawaz Sharif replied, “Give us Kashmir, all bullying will end.” Chandrashekhar was famous for his spot response. He said- OK, you take Kashmir. Nawaz Sharif started smiling, said – let’s talk then. Chandrashekhar and he sat in a room the next moment. Chandrashekhar gave one of his conditions and said that India will give Kashmir to Pakistan, only one condition should be accepted. Nawaz Sharif was ready to do anything for Kashmir. He said – tell me what will be the condition. Chandrashekhar’s answer was – You will also have to take 150 million Muslims of India with you.
Direct talk arrangement between the two countries
Nawaz Sharif’s face turned pale. It was difficult for Pakistan, which was crying for its plight, to contain itself. Nawaz knew the effect of Chandrashekhar’s image as a young Turk. He said- you stop your talk now, I stop mine. Nawaz Sharif told Chandrashekhar that both the countries should make some direct arrangements to talk on their issues.
Hotline set up in PMO
Nawaz Sharif said that if both the countries set up a hotline in their PMO, then in case of any kind of trouble, they will be able to talk to each other easily. Chandrashekhar also liked this thing and after some time a hotline was also set up to talk directly to Pakistan.
When Nawaz praised his father with Neeraj Shekhar
Neeraj Shekhar, son of former PM Chandrashekhar and former Rajya Sabha MP
Navbharat Times Told in a special conversation that Nawaz Sharif had said many things to him while praising his father in a meeting. Neeraj Shekhar said, ‘We had gone to China with the Indian delegation to participate in a conference. Nawaz Sharif also came to the same conference with a delegation from Pakistan. When he met me there, he told me many things about Babuji (Chandrasekhar) and also praised him fiercely. Chandrashekhar was famous for his simplicity in Indian politics. Harivansh, presently Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha and once a media advisor to Chandrashekhar, says that if Chandrashekhar had got a little more time, he would have solved many problems of the country. He wanted a solution to Kashmir and Ram Mandir, if time had come, perhaps the Ayodhya issue would have been resolved earlier.