One of Pakistan’s celebrated diplomats has claimed that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru under the influence of Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon would have destroyed Pakistan. Jamsheed Marker, Pakistan’s longest serving ambassador, described Mr. Menon as an “evil genius” and said that India planned to demolish Pakistan during the Nehru-era.

‘Every attempt was made’

“The threat was real. The Indians made it quite clear that they were out to break Pakistan in one way or the other, by hook or by crook. Every attempt was made to demolish and destroy Pakistan,” said Mr. Marker, 94, who served as ambassador of Pakistan between 1965 to 1995 and set a world record.

In the interview given to the Herald of Pakistan, Mr. Marker indicated that the real anti-Pakistan force in the Nehruvian Cabinet was the Defence Minister.

“India would have attacked Pakistan, if Krishna Menon would have been successful in bringing around Nehru,” he said and added, “I mean he [Menon] was completely Nehru’s man and a rare, evil genius and a Rasputin. There were many Indian Rasputins but he was the chief Rasputin.”

Mr. Marker, who belongs to a Parsi family of Quetta entered diplomacy during the Ayub Khan era and then served under General Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, General Zia-ul-Haq, and Benazir Bhutto. His notable assignments were during the Zia years when he served as Pakistan’s envoy to Bonn, Paris, Washington DC where his support was significant in ensuring the war against the Soviet Union in occupied Afghanistan of the 1980s.