THE first political contact of the Simla series of negotiations that are to open … from Sunday [May 5] was a meeting between His Excellency the Viceroy and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on Thursday [May 2] evening, writes the Political Correspondent of the ‘Associated Press of India’.… The basis of negotiations at the Tripartite Conference will … be the tentative proposals contained in Lord Pethick-Lawrence’s letter to the Presidents of the Indian National Congress and the All-India Muslim League.

Those proposals are: (1) There is to be an Indian Union which will control Defence, Foreign Affairs and Communications; (2) The provinces will have all other powers including residuary powers and they will be free to group themselves, according to predominance of population into Muslim and non-Muslim zones for purposes of administering subjects of common interests; and (3) the Indian States will enter the Indian Union at a later stage after negotiating the basis of their entry with the Union Government.

…[W]hile these proposals will form the basis for negotiations, the Mission will not commit itself to any scheme … though they are expected to give a clear idea to the participants in the conference as to how their own minds are working….

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2021