One Life is Not Enough

by K. Natwar Singh

In 1961, Queen Elizabeth II was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. Lord Mountbatten had got Nehru to agree to the Queen and President Rajendra Prasad jointly taking the salute. This was an atrocious proposal. I spoke to several of my colleagues about it. There was unanimous disapproval. I also spoke to S. Gopal, the son of Dr S. Radhakrishnan. Sensing the mood, Nehru dropped the idea. What bothered me even more was the pernicious influence of the Mountbattens on Nehru, so much so that he was literally eating out of their hands. He was oblivious to Mountbatten’s glaring shortcomings. His wife, Edwina, had fallen in love with Nehru, and he with her. When Edwina Mountbatten died in early 1960 in Borneo, Nehru paid her a tribute in Parliament. This was unprecedented.