In the meeting of the All India Muslim League held in Karachi in December 1947, it was decided to form two independent Muslim Leagues for India and Pakistan. From AD 1934, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the president of the All India Muslim League, but now Jinnah remains the president of the All Pakistan Muslim League. A search was made for the second president for the All India Muslim League.
Pakistan took Gandhiji's sacrifice
At the time when India became independent, the military, economic and financial resources of both the countries were also divided. The provinces of Akhand Bharat which were to be found in Pakistan, the Government of India had a debt of Rs 300 crores which was to be returned by those provinces to the Government of India. It was decided that Pakistan would repay this loan in four years. According to the partition agreement, Pakistan's liabilities towards India were 300 crores. This amount was to be paid by Pakistan to India after 15 August 1952 in 50 equal installments. Pakistan used to make a provision of Rs 7.5 crore in its budget every year for this loan repayment, but it never paid this amount to India. On the other hand, Pakistan used to ask for Rs 55 crore from India in exchange for defense reserves.
Gopal Godse has written that Rs 75 crore was to be given to Pakistan by the Government of India, out of which Rs 20 crore was immediately given to Pakistan. The remaining Rs 55 crore was to be given when the provinces going to Pakistan would repay their debt to the Indian government. On 22 October 1947, Pakistan invaded the state of Kashmir and demanded 55 crore rupees from the Indian government. On this Sardar Patel said that this amount will be given to Pakistan after the Kashmir problem is resolved.
Patel said that Pakistan would use this amount to buy arms against India. The Nehru cabinet approved this decision of Patel. Jinnah put pressure on Mountbatten for this amount. Mountbatten asked Gandhiji to talk to Nehru and Patel to get Rs 55 crore to Pakistan. When Patel refused Gandhiji, Gandhiji sat on a fast unto death in Delhi against Patel on 13 January 1948. Patel did not like Gandhiji's decision to fast and he left Delhi and went to Bombay.
The people of the country did not like the conditions that Gandhiji had put for breaking the fast. The amount of 55 crores should be given to Pakistan unconditionally, without delay. His request filled many people with indignation.
On 12 January 1948, Sardar Patel made a statement among the journalists - 'We have done a just thing by suspending the proceedings of this treaty as a process of resistance to the invasion of Kashmir. We are loyal to this treaty, we are committed, we have said this to the Pakistan government not once but many times, but there is no restriction on us like the fixed period of giving money in this treaty. Pakistan, with the help of its army, has waged an armed conflict with us and there is a dire possibility of its further expansion. In such a situation, abuse of the treaty is possible. Agreements such as accepting the liability of the debt, and the division of property would have the opposite result. In that case, Pakistan will not be able to present its demand justly for receiving the balance amount of the treaty in any way. '
Under Gandhiji's pressure, Nehru gave 55 crore rupees to Pakistan on 15 January 1948. The strange situation was, from the country from which trains of corpses of Hindus were coming and the country which was fighting a war against India, India was giving Rs 55 crores to the same country, whereas till now Pakistan's provinces had a loan of Rs 300 crores. Was yet to return. In those days Gandhiji announced that he would cross the India-Pakistan border with a delegation to Pakistan to persuade Jinnah so that Pakistan could be reunited with India.
Gandhi sent Bombay cotton merchant Jahangir Patel to Pakistan so that he could meet Jinnah and arrange Gandhi's visit to Pakistan. …… reaching Pakistan on foot from India and walking everywhere on foot, by this means Gandhiji undoubtedly would have illuminated a wonderful spiritual aura, but at that time his feet did not have enough strength to get up to the lawns of Birla House.
Another incident happened in those days. A large number of Hindu refugees from Pakistan were coming to India after sacrificing everything, many of them also came to Delhi and took refuge in Hindu temples, Gurudwaras and schools. When all the public places in Delhi were filled with refugees, some Hindu refugees from Pakistan entered a mosque in Delhi. When Gandhiji came to know about this, he sat on a dharna in front of the mosque and started pressurizing the government to get the refugees vacated from the mosque.
The government had to take strict action against the Hindu refugees. When Hindu refugees were being thrown out of the mosque, it was raining heavily in Delhi, due to which women and children started crying and shaking from the cold. It is said that a young journalist named Nathuram Godse, who came to Delhi from Maharashtra, saw this scene with his own eyes. Seeing Hindu children beating, crying and trembling with cold and hunger in their own country, Godse's heart started crying. He vowed to kill Gandhiji.
On 30 January 1948, Nathuram Godse fulfilled his vow and shot Gandhiji at Birla Bhawan in Delhi. Describing his act as Gandhi's killing, Godse left it to the history to decide that if neutral history is written in the future, then he will surely do justice to Godse.