Gandhi was willing to make Jinnah PM but Nehru refused, says the Dalai Lama opining that partition could have been avoided

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, made an uncharacteristically controversial remark (regarding India; he does so with China all the time) on Wednesday when he waded into what could easily turn out to be a political contest by stating that India and Pakistan would have been one if Jinnah had become the Prime Minister of India, instead of Jawaharlal Nehru, and that if it hadn't been for the latter, that could very well have been the case. 

Calling former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru "self-centered", the Dalai Lama said that Mahatma Gandhi wanted Mohammad Ali Jinnah to be the first PM after India won freedom. However, this idea was shot down by Nehru.

"Look at India. Mahatma Gandhi wanted Prime Ministership to go to Jinnah but Nehru refused to agree. I think Pandit Nehru was a little self-centered", the Dalai Lama said at an interaction at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM). 

Further adding to his statement, he said: "If Mahatma Gandhi's wish had materialized, then India and Pakistan would have been united." Holding Nehru responsible for the partition, the Dalai Lama said, "I know Pandit Nehru very well. He was a very experienced person, very wise but sometimes mistake also happens."

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dr. Subramanian Swamy who response to the Dalai Lama's comment stated that it was too late for the spiritual leader to say such a thing and that it did not hold much value now. 

"These are historical issues and hold value for historical debates. Yes, it is true that Mahatma Gandhi wanted Jinnah to be the Prime Minister as he would have been a minority Prime Minister and he could be removed once the British were gone. But it is also true that Jawaharlal Nehru only thought about himself. Gandhi was only thinking of how the British could be removed. But these are now academic questions and hardly make sense to discuss now." he said. 

The 14th Dalai Lama was enthroned in the year 1950, during the Battle of Chamdo between what was then Tibet and the People's Republic of China. In the following year, he and the Tibetan government were forced to accept the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet which would have formally incorporated the county into China's control. In 1959, in the wake of the revolt in Tibet, fearing for his life, the Dalai Lama fled to India, eventually settling in Dharamshala from where he administers the Tibetan government in exile.