India, Pak would be one if Nehru had let Jinnah be PM: Dalai Lama apologises for comment

The Dalai Lama apologised Friday for saying there would have been no Partition, and that India and Pakistan would have stayed together had Nehru agreed to let Jinnah have the prime ministership. 

The Dalai Lama had made his comments earlier this week in Goa. He had at the time been speaking to management students about how, if one were to take emotions out of decision making, would make better decisions. 

News reports quoted the Dalai Lama as saying in Goa that he thought "Mahatma Gandhi was very much willing to give prime ministership to Jinnah, but Pandit Nehru refused."

"I think Pandit Nehru had a little bit self-centred attitude," he had added. 

"If Mahatma Gandhi's thinking had materialised, then India and Pakistan would have remained united," he added. 

The Tibetan spiritual leader's comments led to a massive outcry. He apologised on Friday, saying, "My statement has created controversy. If I said something wrong I apologise."

The Dalai Lama had visited Nehru before China invaded Tibet in 1950. In 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, thousands of his people followed him, and was given shelter in India by Nehru. 

The Dalai Lama currently lives in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.