Surprisingly, Jammu and Kashmir aceeded to India after my speech and offer.
Sheikh Abdullah has been imprisoned for a long time, and knowing that traitor, I had advised raja Hari Singh to keep him imprisoned.
There are some things that I could figure out that might have happened in my previous world.
Sheikh Abdullah was not some big politician of Jammu and Kashmir. He had influence in some muslim majority constituencies. But not on the level to become a CM.
Sheikh Abdullah is Nehru's friend. And given that Nehru tried to convince me to get that guy out of Hari Singh's prison, in my previous world, as the Prime Minister of the interim government, he must have pressured Hari Singh, who clearly doesn't like Sheikh Abdullah for trying to overthrow his rule.
That's why Hari Singh must have not been keen on re-joining India because Sheikh Abdullah would have gotten power, which he did.
Sigh. Nehru's friends all turn out to be deepshits. Be it Jinnah, Sheikh Abdullah, Menon, and the list goes on and on.
His only useful friend is Mountbatten, the current and last Viceroy who is overseeing the accessions of princely states.
Hari Singh didn't readily signed the acession papers though. I had to assure him that the problematic people would be sent to Pakistan if he joined India, like the Lashkars and Sheikh Abdullah.
I guess he was waiting for my stance in public.
Now, Junagadh and Hyderabad are the problem princely states.
Balochistan has declared independence, and I am not sure if I want it under India, or let it be independent and build military base and take control of Gwadar Port that is currently owned by Oman. But time will tell that. For now, it can't be under Pakistan atleast.
The Khan was not understanding that Jinnah was just deceiving him in supporting the Khannate's independence. I should let Pakistan invade it a bit, then go through backdoors to have a two-front war on Pakistan.
Making Pakistan landlocked is necessary.
(16th August 1947)
I arrived in New York for a UN conference that I called for tomorrow. I will initiate the process of India becoming the Sixth permanent member of UN Security Council.
But before that, I am meeting the USA's President.
Cold War has already started after WW2, but it will not get full blown until USSR also gets its nuclear bomb.
Though right now, USA feels invincible.
USA and USSR, India needs to maintain good relations with both of them.
USA for business, food imports and military equipments until India can stand on its own, and USSR for oil, gas, and trust.
Though, its foolish to assume that USSR will be trustworthy in this timeline as well.
Even in my previous world, its unknown if USSR or USA was behind Lal Bahadur Shastri's assassination.
And as for USA, there is no need to trust it. It will backstab. If it can backstab its most loyal ally, Japan in fear of it outgrowing USA economically, there is no doubt that it will backstab India as soon as it sees it as a threat to its hegemony.
Letting USA just directly invest in India is foolish. Its best to have a China like approach, while ensuring that all foreign companies have no presence in India, just use Indian companies themselves to do the manufacturing for them.
Not only it is important to ensure that USA's interference remains the least amount possible, but people in India itself won't accept foreign investment due to trauma of colonalisation.
And we have to ensure that USSR doesn't get too angry with India. We can't really trust West Asia for oil and gas.
So, maintaining balance is very important.
"Good morning, Mr President."
"Good morning, Mr Prime Minister! How was your journey?"
"Quite good."
And I hope it continues being good.