Senior Congress Party leader Saifuddin Soz has reportedly said that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had told then Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan to take Kashmir, “but don’t talk of Hyderabad”.
“Sardar Patel was a pragmatist and offered Kashmir to Liaquat Ali Khan (then Pak PM). He told him ‘don’t talk of Hyderabad, talk Kashmir; take Kashmir but don’t talk of Hyderabad’ as Khan was preparing for war and Patel wasn’t,” Soz said at the sidelines of the launch of his book here on Monday, ANI reported.
Soz was recently caught in a controversy after he backed former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s stance on Kashmir.
In his book ‘Kashmir: Glimpses of History and the Story of Struggle’, Soz had stated that Musharraf’s assessment of Kashmir “seems to be correct even today.”
“Musharraf said Kashmiris don’t want to merge with Pakistan, their first choice is independence. The statement was true then and remains true now also. I say the same but I know that it is not possible,” he further noted, in an interview to ANI.